Dutch close 140 livestock farms over dioxin scare

	Tweet

The Dutch agriculture ministry on Wednesday temporarily shut 140 cattle, pig, sheep and goat farms after cancer-causing dioxin was discovered in milk produced by two farms, the ministry said.

All closed farms used a special potato product to feed animals, which the ministry said had been contaminated with dioxin.

"The closure is a prevention measure because we want to investigate whether there is dioxin contamination in the other farms and a spread into the food chain,” a spokeswoman for the ministry said.

The spokeswoman said a result from the investigation could be expected next week.

Contaminated feed was at the root of recent European food scares such as the discovery of an illegal hormone in Dutch pigs in 2002 and the 1999 Belgian scandal of dioxin in chickens.

Dioxins are one of a number of toxic chemicals that originate in pesticides or industrial processes, leach into rivers and lakes and build up in the flesh of fish and animals. 

RELATED STORIES:
Early use of non-parental childcare is not harmful for most children   Polio outbreak could cripple 200 in Yemen - WHO   Use Hong Kong model to control bird flu - expert   Court rejects $15 mln award in Kansas smoker case   Raw duck blood blamed for Vietnam bird flu cases   U.S. drug trials proposal unethical, critics say   Long life goes hand in hand with a firm grip   Health Squabbles   Wash Your Hands? You May Now Approach the Patient Bed   Croatia arrests local doctor in rare bribe arrest   Health in middle age affects life expectancy   A new way of recognising DNA

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]