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A ProMED-mail post
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
Date: 17 Jan 2011
Source: The Poultry Site
The latest dioxin scare has re-emerged as Germany closes more than
900 more farms following delayed information from another feed
manufacturer about sales of contaminated feed. Germany's dioxin scare
spread as 934 farms in 4 states were closed after receiving
dioxin-laced animal feed, according to Deutsche Welle (a news
source). The closures will add to the euro 100-million [USD 130
million] price tag the farmers' union attributed to the scandal.
Authorities in the state of Lower Saxony discovered a producer
suspected of selling dioxin-contaminated feed had hidden deliveries
to 934 farms, German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner said on
Saturday (15 Jan 2011). The farms have been temporarily shut, and Ms
Aigner called for immediate consequences.
"This is a scandal," she said, adding that she expected a detailed
report from Lower Saxony Premier, David McAllister, by the evening of
15 January 2011.
Elevated levels of dioxin have been traced to one fats manufacturer.
The numerous feed companies that buy its fat have faced testing all
last week to prove their products met the European Union's dioxin
standards of no more than one-trillionth part of food for human consumption.
Federal agriculture officials in Berlin said the latest feed-mixing
company to be implicated had only just been spotted and that there
was no indication it sold any tainted food. Berlin officials said the
Lower Saxony feed mixer had failed to inform authorities it had
bought fat from Harles and Jentzsch, the company at the centre of the scare.
Prosecutors are now investigating whether the company's non-reporting
was deliberate. It had supplied farms in Lower Saxony, as well as the
states of North-Rhine Westphalia, Brandenburg and Bavaria, reports
Deutsche Welle.
Hefty price tag for farmers
---------------------------
The discovery of the toxic chemical dioxin in animal feed has
triggered a health alert and hit sales of German eggs and pork.
Authorities are struggling to contain the scare, which began on 3 Jan
2011, when German officials said feed tainted with dioxin had been
fed to hens and pigs, contaminating eggs, poultry meat and some pork.
Damages from the ongoing scandal would be much greater than the
immediate costs of testing, according to Gerd Sonnleitner, president
of Germany's national farmers' union. "The damage from the disruption
in the market will be many times the direct damage," he said.
Deutsche Welle reports that Mr Sonnleitner put the price of
sequestering farms, requiring laboratory clearance and destroying
produce that failed dioxin tests would cost German farmers euro 100
million (USD 130 million).
--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail rapporteur Mary Marshall
[All the articles mention dioxin, but there have not been any reports
of the associated chemicals like PCB, polychlorinated biphenyls. Some
of these associated products can be more toxic than the dioxins.
For more information on dioxins and the chemicals as well as harmful
levels, readers are encouraged to see ProMED-mail post 20110105.0053
and 20110108.0096. - Mod.TG]
[see also:
Dioxin feed contamination - Germany (03): official report 20110116.0192
Dioxin feed contamination - Germany (02): farms & food concern 20110108.0096
Dioxin feed contamination - Germany: swine & poultry farms 20110105.0053]
....................tg/ejp/dk
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