Dutch farmers to seek damages from Ireland

DUTCH farmers yesterday began slaughtering 50,000 pigs feared contaminated with an illegal hormone, and a group said it would seek compensation from two Irish companies.

Pig farms around the Netherlands were shut temporarily after infertile pigs on one farm were found last month to have been exposed to the hormone MPA, or Medroxyprogresterone acetate, used as a human contraceptive or hormone replacement in menopausal women.

The potential exposure was narrowed to pigs on 27 farms which had been fed a syrup containing the hormone that originated in Ireland and was made into a feed additive in Belgium.