CARNIVORES can pig-out without concern in Cyprus, the Veterinary Services said yesterday.
Responding to fears following revelations that large quantities of Austrian and German pork had been tainted by the use of dangerous hormones and antibiotics, Services director Pavlos Economides said: “There is no cause for concern here because we do not import pork from Europe or anywhere else.”
He said the Veterinary Services also kept a close eye on local pork producers: “We have been testing for Clebyterol (an artificial hormone) since 1995 and we have never come across any samples containing this substance. Also since the 1980s, so for about 20 years now, we have been checking all types of meat for hormones and have not found any.”
Economides said that the only possible concern involved the use of unnecessary antibiotics by some pig farmers. “We have been investigating to find out where and for what reasons the antibiotics were being used and have advised the farmers to stop, informing them about the dangers.”
But he added that Cypriots could “feel secure in the knowledge that no dangerous pork is ever allowed to leave the slaughterhouse. We use these measures to check every piece.”
Nine hundred pig farms in Germany and 500 in Austria have so far been found to be illegally using hormones and antibiotics to make their pigs grow more quickly.
Clebyterol was widely used, but has recently been found to have dangerous side effects on human health, including cancer of the womb in young women.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
