The prohibited substance was found in a dairy farm that supplied maize based feed to veal farms.
The Dutch food safety authority, nVWA, notified the EU authorities about the finding through the RASFF system on 26 June.
The agency has also suspended all activities related to the sale of animals, meat products or fodder at the feed maker and veal operations in question, pending the outcome of the inquiry.
Financial penalties
Roel Vincken, a spokesperson for the nVWA, told us: “A probe is underway into the operations of the feed supplier to see if it delivered feed to other veal farms, beyond the four already shut down.
The suspension of activities at the farms will continue until sampling of urine from calves shows the animals are free of the prohibited substance.”
He said that financial penalties and EU subsidy deductions could result as the farmers are responsible for the quality of livestock feed and can be fined even if they did not know it contained antibiotics.
Detection through routine surveillance
The use of Furazolidone in the feed was uncovered when routine monitoring of veal operations in April by the Dutch veal accrediting body, SKV, found an irregularity in a urine sample, said Vincken.
The SKV then notified the food safety agency, as the national authority, of its discovery.
In a bid to ensure quality in its supply chain, the Dutch veal sector has asked SKV inspectors to carry out unannounced inspections at affiliated producers of veal feed, animal feed traders, veal farms and slaughterhouses.
The SKV officials check to see if regulations are being observed, they take samples and they issue quality certificates to veal producers based on there being no presence of a banned substance in their veal production chain.
Dosage levels
The majority of the meat under investigation was sold into the Dutch market, but some of the veal was also exported to Belgium, Germany, Italy and France, said Vincken.
He said the levels of Furazolidone involved are higher than the acceptable dose but added there was no risk to public health.
The agency said that calves tested had between 0.2ug and 40ug of the breakdown product of the antibiotic, 3-amino-2-oxazolidinone (AOZ), in their meat.
If meat was regularly eaten at the average level of contamination, this would result in average human exposure of 1.2ug per person per meal, said the nVWA.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says that an unacceptable risk for consumers would be an AOZ exposure level of 3ug per day over a lifetime.
Illegal antibiotic usage
Vincken said the use of illegal antibiotics in feed in the Netherlands is not common. “This case is highly unusual for the Dutch livestock sector. The use of banned substances in feed is extremely rare,” he added.
In August 2012, the Dutch authorities seized 1,000 kg (2,205lbs) of illegal antibiotics that may have been meant for use as a growth promoters in animal feed.
The cargo of virginiamycin, an antibiotic that has been banned for feed use by the EU since 1998, was found during a search of a shipping company in the southern Netherlands.