05/01/2005 00:00
TW
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News desk THE Balearic ministry of agriculture says it is safe to eat meat and has lifted the ban on two farms after the latest analyses performed in Madrid to see if the animals had been fed with cloranfenicol proved negative.

One of the farms had 70'000 chickens and the second farm had 1'100 pigs. They were closed days before Christmas.
Five farms are still closed for the use of the antibiotic, which can in exceptional cases cause anaemia, and two are still closed because of the use of clenbuterol.

The Majorcan Socialist Party (PSM) has called on the Balearic government to find out who was responsible for the use of the illegal drug, used for fattening show animals.

Clenbuterol residues can affect lung and heart function in persons who have eaten liver or meat of animals given the drug.
The PSM has accused the government and the agriculture ministry of not acting quickly enough. A spokesman said that poor management by the ministry “had caused consumer concern and damaged the farming sector in general.” However, health minister Aina Castillo rejected the accusations of the socialists, and called on the opposition to exercise a sense of responsibility.
She said that the government was operating a “zero tolerance” attitude in persecuting the use of the banned substances on Balearic farms.
Castillo also said that the large number of tests which have proved negative guarantee that all meat, whether chicken, pork, lamb or beef, which reaches consumers is free from cloranfenicol. She said it would be necessary to eat 250'000 kilos of infected chicken to contract anaemia.