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- energy
- environment
- radioactive
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Vienna (pte031/28.05.2013/14:30) - The Austrian agency for health and food security (AGES) has found wild pigs with dangerous levels of radioactive Cäsium-137 after carrying out random checks in four Austrian regions.
Animals in Austria were found containing more than 600 Becquerel per kilogramme - the amount above which the meat can longer be consumed.
The agency decided to carry out these spot checks after experts measured more than 10,000 Becquerel per kilogramme in a wild pig which was recently shot in Bavaria (Germany).
The test, which was ordered by the head of the health ministry department for radiation Manfred Ditto, was carried out proportionally to the origin of wild pig meat - 80 percent from Lower-Austria, a small part from Upper-Austria.
The Upper-Austrian environment secretary Rudi Anschober (Greens) said that a decision would be made in the next few days at to whether accentuated checks on wild pigs will take place or not. Anschober also said that no test in the last five years has shown figure that are such a health risk.
Christopher Böck who is a wild biologist said that Upper-Austrian pigs very rarely ended up on our plates, and that their slightly higher than acceptable level of Cäsium 137 was explained by the fact that their favourite food, mushrooms, bio-accumulate the radioactive substance and integrated for a long period of time.
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