More than 42,000 egg-laying hens at Hung Chang (鴻彰) farm in Changhua County are to be culled today after tests confirmed that the farm has been supplying eggs that contain excessive levels of dioxin residues, the county’s Department of Agriculture said yesterday.
All of the eggs produced by the farm are also to be destroyed, department section chief Yin Shih-shuan (殷世栓) said.
The authorities are still investigating the source of the dioxin contamination and will analyze the ingredients in the chicken feed used at the farm and track its source, Yin said.
Photo: Chen Kuan-pei, Taipei Times
The latest tests found 2.88 picogram per gram (pg/g) and 3.34pg/g of dioxin respectively in two eggs from the farm, above the permissible level of 2.5pg/g.
Changhua County Public Health Bureau head Yeh Yen-po (葉彥伯) said the contaminated eggs were sampled in February, when the farm changed ownership.
Different owners use different formulas of chicken feed, Yeh said, adding that the authorities have collected samples of eggs and chickens supplied and raised by the former and new owners, as well as eggs supplied by nearby farms, and have sent those samples for examination.
The test results will be available in one or two weeks and will help clarify the source of the contamination, Yeh said.
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday last week announced that it had found eggs containing unsafe levels of dioxin, a group of highly toxic and potentially carcinogenic chemicals, allegedly from three chicken farms in Changhua.
On Wednesday, it confirmed that only eggs from Hung Chang farm were found to be contaminated and that a ban on supplies from the other two farms had been lifted.
Dioxins are pollutants produced as a result of human activity, such as trash burning, and can accumulate in the food chain, mainly in the fatty tissue of animals.
Short-term exposure of humans to high levels of dioxins may result in skin lesions, such as chloracne and patchy darkening of the skin, and altered liver function, according to the WHO.
Long-term exposure is linked to impairment of the immune system, the development of the nervous system, the endocrine system and reproductive functions, the WHO said.
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