Document wD9xw2J8krJJmKRzpv9vE9m9V

Companies _ recall eggs, animal feed r . . ; ' - s: -; Statesman News Services - > ,i A Montana poultry company re1.' called hundreds of thousands of pos , sibly contaminated ep^s Monday, ! and a Utah company continued re ; moving some of its eggs from Salt - Lake City supermarket shelves. Meanwhile, Pierce Packing Co! in Billings, Mont., where toxic PCBs leaked into chicken feed that is su- pected of contaminating both poultry . ... and eggs, has asked for the return of 1.9 million pounds of suspect meat meal feed sold in 8 slates since the ' beginning of June. - A Portland, Ore., specialty firm began dismantling Pierce's feed-pro cessing equipment, where the - banned chemical apparently leaked from a transformer into animal feed. Pierce President Ken Poggi said the source of the PCB had been . traced to the transformer, which was ruptured by a loading vehicle in June. . .. The plant's meal production is con .. tinuing, but sales have stopped pend- ' ing official clearance, Poggi said. The contamination at Pierce has necessitated destruction of hundreds of thousands of chickens and eggs in Idaho and Utah. FDA Regional Director Leroy Gomez of Denver said the Ritewood Egg Co in Franklin, Idaho, was the only Idaho feed buyer to receive bad 1 , feed, Idaho chemical experts will (Sec,PCBs, Pago 7A) W I IT .t - * -v/. - }.v' j /BBMugraasj, A .k. r FDA checks [for PCBs !' ; PCBs----- (Continued from Page 1A) launch a precautionary examination of feed samples at feed detilers throughout the state this week to make sure no PCBs are present, Dr. Rod Awe of the Department of Agri culture announced Monday. Ritewood, which learned of the contamination in mid-August, has al ready destroyed most of its chicken flock and thousands of eggs. Gerald Bookey, owner of Cherry Lake Farms in Three Forks, Mont., ,told the Statesman his firm, which sells 105,000 eggs a day to supermar kets throughout Montana, asked its buyers to return their eggs in ex change for uncontaminated eggs from other farms. "We're highly suspect of contami nation. We are acting to test the eggs," said Bookey, whose farm uses protein meal from Pierce. . Another Pierce customer, Oakdell Farms in Riverton, Utah, has also re called eggs from Salt Lake City su permarkets. Oakdell Manager Bruce Moller sa|d the firm began tracking down 300 dozen eggs last Monday, when it received test results showing PCBs in its eggs. . Both companies said they don't know whether the eggs contain PCBs. "We're pulling back to make peo ple feel better," Moller said. Bookey said he first learned of the feed contamination 2 weeks ago, but refused to say how. . - "1 just got wind of it," he said. Bookey estimated losses to his company, which is a subsidiaiy of the National Food Corp. of Seattle, would be "ast:. nomical." He added Cherry Lane will go to court to re coup some of its losses. "There'll be lawsuits, that's for sure," he said. He was critical of Pierce manage ment for not cooperating with his ef forts to learn the extent of the con tamination. "It was very difficult to get infor mation because they wouldn't return our phone calls," he said. Ritewood also is checking on liabil ity in connection with the contamina tion, which cost it 270,000 chickens and thousands of eggs. Ritewood attorney Lowell Castle- ton said he is investigating a possible basis for government liability, "be cause of the delay in notifying us" of the contamination. Ritewood and Cherry Lane are in sured for claims made against them, but not for chickens and eggs they've had to destroy, according to the com panies. Castleton estimated thoses losses will reach $1 million. (Detection of toxic PCBs In chickens and eggs from an eastern Idaho egg company was slowed for 10 days while a U.S. Departmental of Agriculture worker went on vacr tion, Page IB.) . l in hog feed - ......... By LONNIE ROSENWALD . and GARY STRAUSS The Idaho Statesman WENDELL -- U.S. Food and Drug Administration of- ficials Wednesday confirmed they were checking for . PCB contamination in animal feed that was fed to hogs on one of Idaho's largest hog farms. The hogs have been processed and sold to supermarkets. Mike Williams, the FDA's regional supervisory inves tigator in Seattle, said the FDA on Wednesday collected samples of feed suspected of containing PCBs at Am brose Farms, Wendell. Williams said the test results were expected Friday. ' Williams said Ambrose fed its hogs 27,003 pounds of feed purchased from the Pierce Packing Co., Billings, . Mont.; where PCBs were found last week. Ambrose has sold 300 hogs that ate the feed, Williams said. Neither the FDA nor Neal Ambrose, owner of Am- . brose Farms, would say who purchased the hogs. But the Independent Meat Co. of Twin Falls said it bought 81 of the Ambrose hogs. Independent manager Pat Florence said the hogs' "have already been slaughtered, processed and sold" to - supermarkets. . - Independent markets its processed foods under the ' . Falls Brand label in many Western states. Florence said some meats also were sold to meat packers in other . parts of the country. ' The USDA will test unbutchered hogs and bologna, sa lami and other pork products at Independent today for PCB contamination, said Robert Haskell, USDA re : gional director of meat and poultry inspection in Salem, : pre. Haskell said that if contaminated pork was found at Independent, the USDA would order meats already sold to supermarkets "off the shelves." PCBs -- polychlorinated biphenyls -- are chemicals used in electrical transformers and heat-resistant oils and paints. The manufacture of PCBs was bannned by the federal Environmental Protection Agency on July 2 because of health hazards. The FDA thinks PCBs began leaking sometime after June 9 from a ruptured electrical transformer at Pierce 'into pork scraps that later were sold as animal feed in 8 ' states. ' i So far, Ritewood Egg Co. in Franklin is the only : known Idaho buyer of the contaminated feed. . i Florence said Ambrose stopped selling pork to Inde pendent on Monday because of the feed problem. ' . Ten days ago, Florence asked USDA inspectors whether Independent's meat might have been con taminated, He said he was told his plant "could keep operating under normal inspection procedures." Normal inspection does not include PCB testing, USDA officials said. , Ambrose on Aug. 18 received 48,000 pounds of feed . from Pierce. The remaining 21,000 pounds of feed is being held by the farm. . Florence said the 81 hogs it purchased from Ambrose ' represented 6 percent of the pork it slaughtered during the week the purchases were made. Last year the packing company produced 2.5 million pounds of fresh pork, 2.5 million pounds of cured pork and 3.5 million pounds of processed bologna, salami, hot . dogs and sausage, which was sold under the Falls Brand - trademark. . ! "Depending on where they come from, the hogs are ;. butchered within a week to 10 days," Florence said. Pro- I-cessed fresh pork is sent to market within 2 days, he said. ! Meanwhile, health officials Wednesday took blood tests of Pierce employees in Billings and residents of Franklin, the town near Ritewood where chickens and eggs contaminated with PCBs were discovered in Au : gust, to determine whether they, were contaminated ..'With PCBs. .. : . -i PCB-ARCH-EXT0376275