A national scandal has arisen after the poison dioxin, which was found in the feed on farms in Germany, resulted in the closure of 1000 farms in the state of Lower Saxony and the slaughter of at least 8000 egg-laying chickens.

Dioxin, a by-product of burning rubbish and industrial activities, can cause cancer and miscarriages in humans. There are reports of tainted animal feed having reached farms in the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, North Rhine-Westphalia, Thuringia, and Saxony-Anhalt.

The affected farms are being quarantined until the government can ensure their livestock, including pigs, chickens and turkeys, are safe for human consumption. A ministry spokesman, Gert Hahne, said “We’re shutting everything down first. Consumer protection takes priority.”

The dioxin contamination was first discovered in December; the toxic substance is thought to have found its way onto German farms via feed contaminated by a fatty acids mixture from a distributor in the Netherlands.  

When asked to speculate on how many of the dioxin-contaminated products may have entered the food chain, Hahne said "At the current time, we are not able to estimate that." However, Wilfriend Hopp, a veterinarian from Soest, estimated that around 120,000 contaminated eggs may have already been sold to the public.

Ministry sources say testing of products from the quarantined farms is likely to take a number of weeks.