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Germany closes 4,700 farms in dioxin scare
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Germany closes 4,700 farms in dioxin scare
AFP - Saturday, January 8
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BERLIN (AFP) - – A food crisis in Germany deepened on Friday as around 4,700 farms were closed after tests showed animal feed contaminated by a cancer-causing chemical, with officials saying they suspected foul play.
And fears grew that the contamination could have entered the food chain earlier than thought, as tests on animal fats at the firm at the centre of the scandal reportedly showed they were tainted as far back as March last year.
A spokesman for Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner told a news conference Friday that "4,709 farms and businesses are currently closed," including 4,468 in the state of Lower Saxony, northwest Germany.
The farms will be closed until they are found to be clear of contamination with dioxin, a toxic chemical compound that can cause cancer if ingested in large doses, and will not be allowed to make any deliveries, he added.
Eight of Germany's 16 states were affected by the closures. There are around 375,000 farms in Germany.
The firm Harles und Jentzsch in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein is alleged to have supplied up to 3,000 tonnes of contaminated fatty acids meant only for industrial use to around 25 animal feed makers.
Most of this -- 2,500 tonnes -- was delivered in November and December to animal feed producers in Lower Saxony, where it was used as fodder.
Tests on samples from Harles und Jentzsch showed nine samples out of 20 had dioxin levels higher, or much higher, than legal, the Schleswig-Holstein ministry said on Thursday.
"The first indications point to a high level of illegal activity," said Aigner's spokesman, Holger Eichele. Prosecutors have launched an investigation into the company.
The vice president of the association for consumer protection and food safety in Lower Saxony, Konrad Scholz, noted in the Tagesspiegel daily that industrial acids were much cheaper to produce than those intended for fodder.
"At such high levels, it cannot just be a mistake," he said.
Meanwhile, German farmers were left to count the cost.
The head of the country's farming association, Gerd Sonnleitner, told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung regional daily on Friday: "One has to assume that farmers will be losing around 40 to 60 million euros per week."
However, Eichele said it was "not yet possible to judge how large the economic damage will be."
"First we need to clear up what happened, then we can make an assessment of how serious the damage is and then we can see about helping those farmers who have been placed in this situation without doing anything wrong," he added.
Aigner would meet food safety officials on Monday to discuss the crisis, he added.
The Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung reported earlier Friday that tests conducted on Harles und Jentzsch as far back as March last year had revealed dioxin levels twice the permitted maximum amount.
However, the March test results were not transmitted to the correct authorities and the agriculture ministry in Schleswig-Holstein only received them in late December, the paper said.
The scandal has also spread beyond Germany's borders.
German authorities on Wednesday informed the European Commission and business partners that 136,000 eggs from suspect German farms had been exported to the Netherlands.
And the European Commission said Thursday the hunt had also turned to Britain.
But a statement Thursday from Britain's Food Standards Agency (FSA) said the tainted eggs were not thought to pose a threat.
Aigner has called for tighter regulations in Europe to protect the food chain in a telephone conversation with European Commissioner for Health John Dalli.
Businesses making fatty acids for fodder should not be able to manufacture materials destined for industrial use on the same site, she told the commissioner, who is "open" to the idea, Eichele said.
The German government said earlier that up to 150,000 tonnes of feed overall were feared to have been contaminated.
Dioxin, a by-product of burning rubbish and industrial activities, can cause miscarriages and other health problems in humans, including cancer if consumed in high levels.
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