A massive pig cull is under way in the Netherlands, involving the destruction of 50,000 animals thought to be contaminated by hormone-tainted waste originally sent from Ireland. Dutch farmers have said they will attempt to sue two Irish firms for losses of up to €100 million arising from the disruption caused to pig production.
The original food safety scare emerged last month after sows on a number of Dutch farms were unexpectedly unable to conceive. They had been fed a sugar syrup containing the hormone MPA (Medroxyprogresterone acetate), a constituent of birth control pills.
The discovery shut down most pig production in the Netherlands for a time and eventually affected 11 EU states. The exposure was later narrowed down to pigs on 27 Dutch farms. All of the animals had received a feed additive produced in Belgium from waste sugar water shipped from the Republic.
All pigs on the 27 farms will be destroyed over the next 10 days and their bodies disposed of as waste material. The total damages to farmers included the 50,000 animals but also the temporary closure of most of the 14,000 Dutch pig farms during the past month, said Mr Jack Luiten, spokesman for the Dutch Agricultural and Horticultural Organisation.
"Costs will be in the tens of millions of euros at least, and probably over €100 million," he said. "We have decided to look where blame can be laid and that is with those who are responsible for introducing MPA into the food chain."
The hormone's path into pig feed was traced to Wyeth Medica, a Newbridge, Co Kildare, pharmaceutical plant. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) prepared a report on the incident and forwarded it last month to EU animal food experts in Brussels.
The waste sugar water arose during the sugar-coating of contraceptive pills at the plant. It was released to the Dublin-based waste management company Cara Environmental Technology for disposal. It in turn sold the sugar water to a now bankrupt Belgian company, Bioland, which sold it as treacle to Dutch feed compounders.
Mr Luiten said the farmers' organisation believed Wyeth and Cara should have made sure the water was disposed of properly and that it has sent both firms letters indicating the farmers held the two responsible for damages.
The EPA report said non-hazardous sugar waste from Wyeth was correctly classified for export between 1997-1999. "However, in November 1999, following an audit by personnel from the Wyeth and Cara companies of a treatment company, Bioland in Belgium, the non-active, non-hazardous waste sugar stream was rerouted to Bioland, classified as green waste (incorrectly), not requiring notification under the Trans-Frontier Shipment Regulations requirements and shipped for recovery."
It said that from July 2000 sugar water containing MPA was shipped to Bioland. It added that no notification was made by Wyeth of this change in procedure, and this breached its integrated pollution control licence.
(Additional reporting AP)