More Dutch eggs contaminated with fipronil

Eggs from a chicken farm in Tilligte, Overijssel were found to contain toxic pesticide fiprionil. As a result of this contamination, the farmer's over 3 thousand chickens were killed or taken away. His stock of some 45 thousand eggs was also destroyed, De Gelderlander reports.

This is the second time in less than nine months that this farmer was hit by such a disaster, according to the newspaper. The first time was in mid-August last year.

Fipronil is an insecticide used against lice, ticks and fleas. It is also used in flea collars for cats and dogs. The World Health Organization considers fipronil to be "moderately toxic" to humans. In large quantities it can damage the liver, kidneys and thyroid gland. The European regulations for the use of fipronil was adjusted on January 1st, 2017. Fipronil is banned from being used in pesticides in high concentrations.

In the summer of last year it was discovered that Barneveld company ChickFriend used this substance to combat blood lice at dozens of Dutch and Belgian farms. Thousands of chickens and countless eggs had to be destroyed. The fipronil crisis caused millions of euros of damages to the poultry sector.

Fipronil was discovered in the Tilligte farmer's eggs last week, during a random check. How this new contamination happened is not clear. The farmer told the newspaper that he has a "strong suspicion" that residues of fipronil remained in the soil of his pasture on Ootmarsumsestraat, where his chickens walk around by day. "They peck at the soil and in this way the fipronil must have ended up in the stall and infected the eggs. I can not think of anything else", the devastated farmer said.