Belgium to consider slaughtering of contaminated pigs

Lead: Brussels, July 21 (Reuters) - Belgian food safety agency AFSCA said on Sunday it had found the illegal hormone MPa in a batch of imported live pigs from the Netherlands and was considering slaughtering them collectively According to AFSCA, 4000 pigs were imported from the Netherlands and transported to a farm in Limburg Province in northern Belgium MPA has been found in their faeces Asked if the pigs would be destroyed, a spokesman for AFSCA said, "it needs to be discussed, but it is possible." "If animals are tested positive for MPa, they must be destroyed," the spokesman added He said further discussions will be held next week to decide how to proceed and how many pigs to slaughter The owner of the farm in question also has five days to ask for a reverse analysis of the samples In recent weeks, the discovery of MPA in pig feed has made food experts in Europe face increasing problems The illegal Hormone Pollution involves 11 of the EU's 15 member countries, and thousands of farms are "implicated", mainly in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.