990647 Belgian Food Scare Extends to Pigs

Brussels, Belgium - Belgian authorities have declared 68 pig farms off limits due to fears the piglets being raised may be born of animals fed with dioxin-laced animal feed, news reports said Sunday.

The Ministry of Agriculture ordered the temporary closure of the farms Saturday, the RTBF and RTL-TVI television stations reported. All the farms are located in Flanders in northern Belgium.

Many nations have banned Belgian beef, poultry, pork and byproducts over the past weeks after it was discovered that large quantities had been contaminated by cancer-causing dioxin. The contamination apparently was caused by dioxin- laced animal feed.

The reports on Sunday said the young pigs were bought from other pig farms where the animals were believed to have been fattened with suspect animal feed.

The RTBF report said the latest order brings to around 670 the total number of companies, including pork and poultry firms, that are off limits in Belgium due to the dioxin scare.

Earlier this month, the Belgian government declared it had traced the dioxin contamination to the animal feed fat producer Verkest. They traced the company's products to farms and on to consumer outlets, banning all sales of suspect meat, eggs and other products to eliminate health risks.

But on Tuesday, investigators identified another animal feed fat producer, Fogra, as a source of cancer-causing dioxin, raising fears that not all potentially tainted poultry, pork and beef products have been removed from supermarket shelves.

The European Union has started legal proceedings against Belgium for waiting a month before warning the EU about the contamination.

The Commission, the EU's executive arm, said Belgium did not take the necessary steps to ensure tainted food would not be distributed to consumers or exported.

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