Analyzes have shown that fipronil has been used illegally since September 2016, the European Commission announced.
The contamination of eggs with fipronil is not as recent as one thinks… According to the European Commission, the fraud which led to the contamination of eggs by the insecticide actually dates back to September 2016. “We now have indications that this illegal use of fipronil was already taking place in 2016 ”, thus assured Sabine Jülicher, director of the Directorate-General for Health Security of the European Commission to the European Parliament. This discovery is based on historical samples put aside by certain companies.
The disinfection of laying hen farms with a product containing fipronil, an insecticide that is strictly prohibited in the food chain, has contaminated tens of millions of eggs. The crisis, which therefore dates back several months, did not come to light until the beginning of August.
34 affected countries
According to the European Commission count, 22 countries in Europe (1) but also Switzerland, Norway and Liechtenstein and 9 non-European (2) received batches of contaminated eggs,
The fraud was mainly practiced in the Netherlands and Belgium, where 258 and 93 farms respectively were blocked for a time by the authorities. The European Commission also reports suspicions that led to the blockades of seven farms in Germany, one in France, ten in Italy and two in Hungary.
Incarcerated suppliers
In Belgium and the Netherlands, the directors of the supplier Poultry-Vision and the disinfection company ChickFriend have been jailed. Several other companies are also in the crosshairs of justice for having mixed fipronil, but also other prohibited substances, with a product against the red louse presented as “natural” and marketed under the name DEGA 16.
When sounding the alert to its European partners, Belgium mentioned the fact that DEGA 16 also contained amitraz. However, “no residue of amitraz was found in the eggs examined,” said Sabine Jülicher. France announced tests, explaining that this insecticide had been used in “a little less than ten farms” of laying hens on its soil.
The European executive will launch “an investigation throughout Europe to control the use of illegal substances on laying hens against the red louse”, in particular fipronil and amitraz.
(1) Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, France, United Kingdom, Austria, Poland, Romania, Italy, Luxembourg, Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Denmark, Spain, Hungary, Finland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece and Estonia
(2) Hong Kong, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Liberia, Russia, South Africa, Angola and Iraq
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