More than 4 million eggs recalled in Poland

Poland's veterinary service recalled some 4.3 million eggs contaminated with an antibiotic, just days after Dutch eggs were pulled from supermarket shelves in Germany.

Officials yesterday ordered the eggs, on sale in the domestic market, to be removed following an inspection.

"The recall is caused by the presence of residues of the antibiotic lasalocid at a rate exceeding its maximum allowed value," a statement said.

The head of the Polish veterinary service Pawel Niemczuk said the drug was added "erroneously" to the feed given to laying hens on a farm near Poznan.

"The feed for fattening chickens (which legally uses the antibiotic) was mistakenly given to laying hens," he told the Polish news agency PAP.

On Tuesday, German authorities pulled around 73,000 Dutch eggs from supermarket shelves after they were found to be contaminated with fipronil, the same insecticide that sparked a huge food scare last year.

The agriculture ministry of Lower Saxony said the batch of tainted eggs had come from an organic farm in the Netherlands, but insisted there was no danger to human health.

The scare revived memories of last year's fipronil scandal, when millions of eggs contaminated with the insecticide had to be destroyed in 45 countries around the world.

Commonly used to get rid of fleas, lice and ticks from animals, fipronil is banned by the EU from use in the food industry.

When eaten in large quantities fipronil can harm people's kidneys, liver and thyroid glands, according to the World Health Organization.