Farm toxins 'not due to foot-and-mouth'

Tests have failed to find unexpectedly high levels of cancer-causing substances in milk, eggs, soil and grass on farms near foot-and-mouth pyres, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) said yesterday.

The agency did find high levels of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) in eggs produced on one farm in Anglesey, but it does not believe that the toxins were the result of pollutants produced by nearby pyres.

The FSA said it will carry out further investigations to find the cause of the contamination of the eggs, which were not destined for public consumption.

Duck eggs and samples of soil and grass taken from the same farm did not have above-average levels of PCBs, suggesting that the problem is connected with chicken feed rather than general pollution, a spokeswoman for the FSA said.

Levels of dioxins on the farm were in the expected range known to exist in the wider environment. "These factors suggest that something other than the pyres is the source of the contamination at the Anglesey farm," the spokeswoman said.

Suzi Leather, the deputy chairman of the agency, said that further tests may reveal the precise cause of the problem.