Contaminated feed to be destroyed within 60 days

THE AGRICULTURE Ministry yesterday announced they would destroy the contaminated animal feed within 60 days, just as a new batch of milk with aflatoxin levels higher than permitted was located in a livestock farm.

The tainted milk was found yesterday at the Cleopatra Karaoli farm in Kolossi. According to the District Veterinary Officer, Evangelos Evangelou, the aflatoxins were located in sheep and goat’s milk, which was destroyed. New samples were also taken for tests.

The House Agriculture Committee yesterday heard that 11,000 tons of animal feed had been confiscated or detained across the island from the 20,000 tons that were imported, while 8,500 tons had already been consumed and roughly 500 tons found in units of transformation or production.

Speaking before the Committee, the Director of the State Lab, Stella Michaelidou, reassured that “the State Lab in collaboration with the Veterinary and Health Services has proceeded and continues to proceed in all the suitable tests of samples that concern milk and dairy products concerning the problem of aflatoxins”.

The General Director of the Agriculture Ministry, Panikos Pouros said that “as days go by we are improving”, adding that over the last three days, no sample was found to contain aflatoxins over the permitted level.

Pouros added that, “Within 60 days the animal feed that has been detained will either be destroyed or re-exported by the importer.”

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.