Berlin: Germany shut down more than 4,700 farms and related businesses late Thursday after tests showed animal feed had been contaminated by a cancer-causing chemical.
"4,709 farms and businesses are currently closed," including 4,468 in the state of Lower Saxony, northwest Germany, the agriculture ministry said in a statement late Thursday.
Britain's food safety watchdog has said that egg tainted with dioxin that has been imported into the country after being contaminated in Germany is not thought to be a risk to health.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said they had been informed that affected eggs were sent to the Netherlands and mixed with other non-contaminated eggs to make a pasteurised liquid egg, which was then exported to Britain.
"The mixing of the eggs will have diluted the levels of dioxins and they are not thought to be a risk to health," said the agency in a statement.
"The FSA is currently liaising with the industry and will provide further updates as information becomes available."
The farms will be closed until they are found to be clear of contamination by dioxin, a toxic chemical compound that can cause cancer, and will not be allowed to make any deliveries, the ministry added.
State officials banned deliveries to any businesses involved in the production of the fodder at the centre of the scare, said the agriculture ministry in Berlin.
"This strategy explains the high number of closures," but the bans should be progressively lifted in the coming days once tests had been carried out, the ministry added.
Eight of Germany's 16 states were affected by Thursday's closures.
Worst hit after Lower Saxony was the western state of North Rhine/Westphalia where 152 farms were closed; 52 farms in Schleswig-Holstein and 27 in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.
It was in Lower Saxony that 2,500 tonnes of contaminated fatty acids at the centre of the alert were delivered in November and December, where they were used as animal fodder.
The firm Harles und Jentzsch in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein is alleged to have supplied up to 3,000 tonnes of contaminated fatty acids meant only for industrial usage to around 25 animal feed makers.
Nine samples out of the 20 that were analysed showed dioxin levels higher, or much higher than legal, the Schleswig-Holstein ministry said earlier Thursday.
A spokesman at the agriculture ministry in Berlin defended the measures.
