Contaminated pig feed taken off shelves

A better headline surely would have been "Have you got lead in your (pig) pencils", I'm wasted on this trade I really am.....

An imported feed supplement for pigs has been withdrawn from sale in Australia. The supplement, imported from China contained high levels of lead.

Testing revealed pigs in six Western Australian piggeries had high levels of the metal in their systems. Those piggeries have been put into quarantine and will remain so for at least another month. Another 60 piggeries which also use the same feedstock are being closely monitored to ensure the pigs have not been affected.

The Agriculture Department's Dr Ashley Mercy says the feed supplement has been recalled and will no longer be sold in WA, but says feed manufacturers need to check what is coming into Australia.

"To make sure their quality assurance programs that they've got in place include checking the analysis that they get, and even to go to the extent of maybe they want to analyse the ingredients to make sure that it matches what it says on the certification certificate," he said.