February 14, 2006

Authorities in the Netherlands lift farm quarantine
 

The Dutch food safety authority (VWA) announced on Friday it had lifted the quarantine orders on the remaining 127 Dutch farms closed after dioxin was found in animal feed last month. At one stage, 275 farms were quarantined.

VWA said test results did not show abnormally high levels of dioxin in pigs and thus there was no need to continue the quarantine.

Earlier this week VWA said it would cull about 3,500 pigs weighing more than 50 kg from the 10 farms where the highest contamination was found.

For pigs weighing less than 50 kg, a risk analysis has shown that the level of dioxin in the meat will reach safe levels once the pigs reach the 110 kg weight at which they are slaughtered, the VWA said.

The dioxin contamination scare began in January after toxins were found in Belgian pork fat ingredients used to make animal feed.

South Korea banned pork from Belgium and the Netherlands when news about the dioxin contamination surfaced.