Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Salmonella Outbreak Spreads to Pig Farm

Salmonella Outbreak Spreads to Pig Farm

published yesterday 06:18 PM, updated yesterday 08:38 PM

Suckling piglets

Image: YLE

Salmonella has been discovered on a pig farm in southern Ostrobothnia. The pig farm used feed supplied by Raisio Feed Ltd, which is the company that recently delivered salmonella-contaminated feed to poultry farms. To date, salmonella has spread to 12 egg-producing farms around Finland through contaminated feed.

Laboratory test results on Wednesday confirmed the existence of salmonella on a pig farm in Ostrobothnia. Sanitation operations at this farm are currently underway.

Officials will now test all Ostrobotninan pig and poultry farms for salmonella. Some 800 samples have been taken so far.

The Finnish Food Safety Authority, Evira, says it’s highly unlikely that any new salmonella cases will be discovered on pig farms.

Affected Farms Seek Compensation

Salmonella-infected farms have said they plan to seek compensation for loss of production and livestock. They also want to be reimbursed for money spent on disinfecting their premises. Raisio Feed says it plans to pay damages as soon as the number of contaminated farms is determined.

Mignon Egg Scare

Meanwhile, confectionary company Fazer is calming consumers that its Mignon chocolate Easter eggs, which are real eggs shells filled with chocolate, are salmonella-free. The company says all eggs shells rolled out on the Mignon production line have received a clean bill of health.

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