French claim on cattle rejected

The Department of Agriculture said it is not aware of any Irish case of cattle being injected with rat poison to mask the use of illegal growth hormones. This follows an investigation in France into the practice. French authorities believe it may also have been used in an attempt to turn meat a deeper, more appealing colour.

A spokesman for the department said there was no evidence of this occurring in Ireland. Aside from the obvious risk to an animal's health, to administer the poison in such a manner would be a criminal offence.

The Department, none the less, was aware of the French investigation, he added. The State laboratory and other laboratories testing Irish meat were kept up to date by their European counterparts on the use of various masking agents.

The French National Consumer Council, meanwhile, has instructed its vets to test carcasses to try to confirm the practice. "At the moment, we can only confirm that we have serious indications that this may be happening," a council spokesman said. "We don't know exactly where or to what degree, but a systematic investigation is warranted. Clearly, the implications are alarming."

Initial indications suggest that several thousand cattle may be involved - most suspect cases are in eastern areas of France. The investigation was prompted by the seizure in the Saone-et-Loire area of a large quantity of growth hormones. Police understand that a farmer there was using dicoumaral, a rat poison, widely available in France, to mask the hormones.