Farmers in Northern Ireland face a £5 million bill if thousands of cattle are destroyed following the recent feed contamination scare, it was revealed tonight.
With around 7,000 animals banned from supermarket shelves, food producers are calling on the Northern Executive to step in to save them from ruin.
High levels of potentially cancer-causing dioxins were discovered last year in feed from a plant in the Republic which has affected around eight farms in the north, the Ulster Farmers¿ Union (UFU) added.
A spokesman said: ¿It certainly could run into a multi-million pound bill but we don¿t know the type of animals involved.
¿At a modest estimate they could cost £5,600 each so we are running to £4-5 million.¿
Pigs were at the centre of last autumn¿s alert, which saw shelves across Britain temporarily stripped of Irish pork.
Northern Ireland pork was swiftly declared safe to eat and cattle at that time were thought to be under less threat because they ate less of the contaminated meal. Pork supplies have returned to normal.
The UFU said it was planning to meet the Department of Agriculture to discuss its concerns.
¿Farmers have been in limbo, they have been feeding the animals over Christmas and the new year uncertain about whether the animals enter the food chain,¿ the spokesman added.
¿If they don¿t enter the food chain these farmers will be seriously out of pocket.¿
He said alternatives to an Executive payment included adopting a compensation plan along the lines of that in the Republic or pursuing whoever is found to be at fault for contaminating the feed.
PA