990617 Key Dates/Events In Belgian Dioxin Scare

Brussels - Here are key dates and events in the scare over dioxin poisoning in Belgian chicken meat, pork, beef, eggs and by-products.

JANUARY 18-19, 1999: Dioxin, a toxic chemical that can cause cancer, pollutes a storage tank of oils and fats processing company Verkest, based near Ghent. Dioxin, which results from numerous combustion processes, has been found near plants such as incinerators, and once in the body, cannot be excreted.

JANUARY 19-END JANUARY: Animal fat is contaminated in the polluted tank and then used in animal foodstuff.

MARCH 3-19: A Belgian farm reports problems with hens to its insurer. An investigating vet finds that processed fat could be the cause. The farm notifies the Belgian farm ministry.

MARCH 24: The Verkest company is investigated.

APRIL 12: Public prosecutors are told of irregularities.

APRIL 21: The investigating vet tells the farm ministry he suspects dioxin contamination is the source of the problem.

APRIL 26: After tests show up a high level of dioxin in animal feed and chicken fat, the ministry orders new samples be taken at Verkest; hens and feed, also from pig farms, are tested further; contaminated fat is traced to 10 animal feed makers in Belgium, one in France and one in the Netherlands; the French and Dutch authorities are informed.

MAY 25: Officials from the Farm and Health Ministries and industry meet to discuss the issue.

MAY 26: The farm and health ministries place all poultry farms that have bought possibly contaminated feed under surveillance, halting trade; the health ministry begins tracing contaminated meat, the farm ministry traces contaminated eggs.

MAY 27: The situation is explained in a short press release.

MAY 28: Health Minister Marcel Colla advises retailers to remove all chicken and eggs from sale; Germany, France advise consumers not to eat Belgian-produced chicken and eggs.

MAY 31: European Union Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler says “precautionary measures” might be needed; Russia, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Portugal ban or test Belgian products.

JUNE 1: Belgium bans wholesalers from selling products containing eggs or chicken until after tests for dioxin; the European Commission proposes destroying food made with Belgian chickens and eggs from farms which used the contaminated feed; Health Minister Colla and Farm Minister Karel Pinxten resign.

JUNE 2: Managers Lucien Verkest and his son Jan are arrested and charged with fraudulent accounting and merchandise fraud; Belgium says some 500 pig- breeders and over 400 poultry farms may have used tainted feed; British businesses check they are not using poultry or egg products' from the affected farms.

JUNE 3: Belgium says beef is tested for dioxin, sets a three-day ban on slaughtering on poultry, pigs and cattle; up to 70 cattle farms could have used the suspect feed; the European Commission orders the destruction of food from pig and cattle farms which used the suspect feed; the U.S. blocks imports of poultry and pork from the European Union.

JUNE 4: The European Union curbs sales throughout EU of Belgian beef, pork and dairy products; Belgium says there is no general contamination of Belgian meat and issues a list of high-fat beef and pork products to be removed from sale; the slaughter ban is extended by two days; France quarantines 66 cattle producers on fears they may have used contaminated feed; ban on Belgian products widens with France, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Portugal, South Korea, Cyrpus taking steps.

JUNE 5: Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene halts campaigning for the June 13 elections to focus on the crisis; sanctions spread to countries including the Japan and Saudi Arabia.

JUNE 6: Belgium bans butter sales; Egypt and Algeria join the list of countries with trade bans.

JUNE 7: Belgium now says some 1,400 farms may have used contaminated feed; costs to Belgium's food industry are seen running to at least 20 billion Belgian francs ($510 million).

JUNE 8: Belgium's Budget and Farm Minister says the crisis will hit the 1999 and 2000 budgets; samples at three animal feed firms test positive for dioxin; Belgium says the poultry slaughter ban could be lifted from June 9.

JUNE 9: Belgium almost doubles the list of suspect poultry farms, raising the number to 1,560 after it emerges tainted feed was used more widely than thought; chicken slaughter is interrupted, then resumed; the European Union says Belgium is not respecting its decision to withdraw all food products from sale that may be tainted with dioxin.

JUNE 10: Belgium allows the slaughter from non-blacklisted farms to resume on most pork and beef farms from midnight; angry farmers and butchers block Belgium's borders with France and the Netherlands to protest the ban on exports; Celia Dehaene, wife of the Belgian prime minister, in a newspaper interview, calls the crisis “a frame-up” of the government and says she has not changed her eating habits.

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