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Czechs find more salmonella-tainted Polish meat
PRAGUE, April 2, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Czech veterinary authorities said
Tuesday they had detected another 510 kilos of chicken breast from Poland
tainted with the dangerous salmonella bacteria, following a rift over meat
imports.
“The meat has been distributed and… most probably consumed,” the State
Veterinary Administration (SVS) said in a statement.
Meat from Poland caused a stir in the Czech Republic after local vets
slapped mandatory laboratory checks on Polish beef in February following the
discovery of a salmonella-tainted batch.
That same month, vets said they had found 1,200 kilos (some 2,600 pounds)
of Polish chicken containing salmonella, part of which had already been
distributed.
They lifted the measure last week but insisted they would continue random
sample checks on imports, especially of beef and poultry from Poland.
SVS spokesman Petr Vorlicek told AFP that vets were not contemplating
mandatory lab checks on Polish poultry now.
He noted that salmonella is not uncommon in poultry.
“We are closely monitoring all imports, that’s why we have also detected
this batch,” he added.
The scandal erupted when the TVN24 commercial news channel aired footage
of apparently sick or lame cows being butchered at a small slaughterhouse in
northeast Poland in secret late at night when veterinary authorities were
unlikely to visit. In January, Poland exported 2.7 tonnes of suspect beef to
around a dozen fellow EU members, triggering a probe.
Poland is a leading producer and exporter of meat in Europe, turning out
around 600,000 tonnes of beef per year and exporting most of it to the EU,
according to meat producer associations.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1911 hrs