Yahoo – AFP, Charlotte van Ouwerkerk and Jan Hennop, August
8, 2017
 |
"Chickens have feelings too": Dutch animal activists wave banners and placards
as they stage a protest at a poultry farm in Witteveen (AFP Photo/Erik Brinkhorst) |
The Hague
(AFP) - In a new twist in Europe's tainted egg scandal, Dutch authorities
announced Tuesday they had started testing chicken meat coming from affected
poultry farms to determine whether it was also contaminated.
Scientists
are looking for the presence of the insecticide fipronil, a substance
potentially dangerous to humans, after supermarkets in Germany, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Switzerland pulled millions of eggs from the
shelves.
"We
are currently testing chicken meat in the poultry farms where eggs were
infected to determine whether the meat is contaminated as well," Tjitte
Mastenbroek, spokesman for food security agency NVWA, told AFP.
The probe
focuses on "a few dozen" farms that produce both eggs and chicken
meat, NVWA said.
Meanwhile,
the Dutch Safety Board, the country's agency looking into civilian safety
issues, announced it was opening its own probe into why fipronil was not
detected earlier in eggs as well as "the role in this of the poultry
sector and Dutch government."
"The
way consumers have been informed about the risks of fipronil are also being
investigated," the Hague-based OVV said in a statement.
Millions of
chickens now face being culled in the Netherlands as the scandal widens across
Europe.
Hard-hit
Germany on Tuesday called on Belgian and Dutch authorities to quickly shed
light on what it termed a "criminal network" involved in the
contamination of eggs with fipronil.
"When
one sees a criminal energy that's almost organised as a network it's
unacceptable," said German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt.
He again
criticised Belgian and Dutch authorities' tardy response to the crisis.
Belgium's
top agricultural official Monday ordered the country's food safety agency to
report within a day why it failed to notify neighbouring countries until July
20 despite knowing about fipronil contamination since June.
"It's
not in the spirit of the early warning system to be aware in June but only to
inform us by the end of July," Schmidt said.
Mastenbroek
told AFP that a criminal probe by the NVWA under Dutch prosecution authorities
and assisted by Belgium is continuing, looking at the role of companies in
contaminating Dutch poultry farms with fipronil.
Meanwhile,
the French government said Monday "thirteen batches of contaminated eggs
from The Netherlands" were delivered in July to food processing companies
located in central-western France.
First
egg, now chicken
Mastenbroek
said so far her agency's "highest priority" has been the detection of
contaminated eggs.
"But
now we also have the time to look at meat as a precautionary measure," she
said.
Most farms
exclusively produce one or the other, said Eric Hubers at LTO, a Dutch farming
organisation.
If the meat
tests are negative for fipronil, producers will be cleared to resume sales,
Mastenbroek said.
LTO said
the probability of chicken meat found to be infected was small.
However, if
fipronil was detected "farming will be completely suspended," Mastenbroek
said.
'Cutting
costs'
The
contaminated egg scandal erupted last week when up to 180 Dutch farms were
shuttered due to the presence of fipronil discovered in some of the eggs.
It is
believed the toxic substance was introduced to poultry farms by a Dutch
business named Chickfriend brought in to treat red lice, a parasite in
chickens.
Dutch and
Belgian media reports that the substance containing the insecticide was
supplied to Chickfriend -- a small company operating out of the Dutch poultry
heartland in the central town of Barneveld -- by a Belgian firm have not been
confirmed.
Currently
Dutch authorities have closed down 138 poultry farms -- about a fifth of those
across the country -- and warned that eggs from another 59 farms contained enough
levels of fipronil that they should not be eaten by children.
Belgium has
blocked production from 51 farms -- a quarter of those nationwide -- with
fipronil found at 21 farms, although levels were ten times below the maximum EU
limit, the country's food and safety authority AFSCA said.
Other
European countries including Austria, Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal and Romania
said they were analysing imported eggs, but so far no contaminated eggs were
found.
Enviromental
group Greenpeace on Tuesday called for massive reforms in the food supply
system to become safer, healthier and more transparent and to do away with
so-called "factory farming".
"Factory
farming has been at the centre of a number of scandals, from Mad cow (disease)
to bird flu, from swine flu to horsemeat," said Davin Hutchins, Greenpeace
senior food campaigner.
"These
are symptoms of a system trying to cut costs at every corner to maximise
profits at the expense of public health and the environment," he said.
