Pig Cull As Food Scare Crisis Probed

An investigation is underway in the Irish Republic as an estimated 100,000 Irish pigs face culling in the wake of the country's biggest food scare since BSE.

Gardaí have now been called in to investigate how pigmeat came to be contaminated by potentially harmful dioxins, known as PCBs.

So far 47 farms in the Republic, and a further nine in Northern Ireland, have been linked to dioxin contaminated pig feed.

However, it is understood that no pigs in Northern Ireland have yet tested positive for the dioxin and farmers are hoping the province could escape the worst of the crisis that has hit across the border.

However, it has been estimated that €125m worth of food products in Ireland and in export markets - taking in up to 25 countries worldwide - will have to be destroyed.

The dioxins were initially detected in a meat plant in the Republic, contained in feed supplied by a Co Carlow food recycling plant.

Millstream Power Recycling said officials are testing an oil which had never been added as an ingredient but which was used in a machine employed to dry feed.

An Irish trade union - IPTU - has also just revealed that around 900 workers have been laid off at four pigmeat plants in Offaly, Leitrim and Tipperary this morning as a result of the dioxin contamination scare.

The union says up to 6,000 jobs are at risk in the pig industry following the removal of Irish pork and bacon from sale across the world.

It is criticising the stringent measures implemented by the Government and the (Irish) Food Safety Authority, claiming they were too stringent given that only a minority of pig farms were affected by the contaminated feed.

The Irish Farmers Association, meanwhile, said it is impossible to estimate how much the contamination scandal will cost the Irish pork industry.

Association president Padraig Walshe is due meet processors and the Minister for Agriculture this afternoon to discuss the crisis, with some estimates putting the total cost at around €1bn.

Earlier, Strangford MLA Jim Shannon branded the Northern Ireland Agriculture Department's handling of the pork contamination crisis a "shambles".

Mr Shannon, who runs a farm on the Ards Peninsula in Co Down, described the authorities' response as "inept" and a "disgrace".

The DUP politician claimed farmers were being given inadequate advice that posed more questions than answers.

Yesterday the Food Standards Agency warned consumers against eating pork from Northern Ireland and the Republic because of a suspected feed contamination.

The FSA has said consumers do not face a "significant risk", with health dangers only affecting those who are exposed to relatively high levels of the contaminant for long periods.

(BMcC)