In the Netherlands, millions of eggs contaminated with fipronil have been withdrawn from sale. Farms have been closed and chickens slaughtered.
The devastation of the pesticide. After the discovery of traces of an insecticide in eggs, millions of hens could be slaughtered in the Netherlands, estimated Monday the National Federation of Agriculture and Horticulture (LTO). Some 150 farms in the area have been closed and hundreds of thousands of hens have already been slaughtered.
According to the LTO, the risk to consumers has passed. “But this is not the case for breeders. It will be weeks or even months before they can resume production, ”said the director of the LTO, quoted by the Dutch media. Egg producers will not be able to market their production again until analyzes have determined that there is no trace of fipronil.
Millions of eggs withdrawn from sale
Millions of eggs have already been removed from shelves in supermarkets in several European countries after the discovery of residues of this pesticide, used against fleas, ticks and mites. The chemical is approved for treating companion animals, but under no circumstances should it be administered to animals intended for the food chain.
Indeed, the World Health Organization considers fipronil as “moderately toxic” for humans. However, it was found in large quantities on certain batches of eggs. Earlier this week, the NVWA warned consumers who bought eggs with the code X-EN-40155XX, in which “the level of fipronil is so high that their consumption represents a serious danger to public health”.
Fipronil was introduced to poultry farms which had called on a Dutch company, Chickfriend, to carry out a treatment against the red louse, a parasite harmful to chickens. The number of farms affected by the contamination remains unknown to this day.
The producers hold the company responsible for this contamination. According to the Dutch agricultural and horticultural organization, quoted by the public radio and television station NOS, Chickfriend would have duped the breeders by mixing “the illicit substance with a licit product to increase its effectiveness”.
Belgium: the origin of the contamination?
However, according to the Dutch news agency ANP, the person responsible could actually be located in Belgium, a few kilometers from the border. The agency explains that Chickfriend acquired the pest control product Dega-16 from a company located in the Belgian municipality of Weelde, called Poultry-Vision. This is where fipronil could have been added illegally. A search took place a few days ago in the premises of Poultry-Vision. An investigation is underway, in collaboration with the Belgian authorities.
The consequences are still difficult to assess. Germany recalled earlier this week nearly a million eggs after discovering, at a packing and distribution point in North Rhine-Westphalia, the presence of the insecticide in some eggs. This Friday, the supermarket chain Aldi announced that it had withdrawn all its eggs from sale in all German regions. In the Netherlands, analyzes are underway. Affected producers must destroy all their eggs and farms are blocked.
According to the WHO, fipronil has deleterious effects on the kidneys, liver and thyroid. The insecticide was banned in France in 2004 because of its toxicity on bees, then reintroduced in 2007 by the European Commission for the treatment of seeds. Designed in 1993 by a French company, it is now owned by the German company BASF.
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