Europe's growth hormone-laced animal feed crisis continues to become bigger. From merely three Dutch pig farms in June 2002, the tainted feed has made its way to farms in 11 European Union (eu) nations. The Dutch authorities have halted exports from 2,000 more pig farms.

European scientists suspect the medroxyprogesterone-acetate (mpa) hormone found in the feed causes infertility in humans. mpa is banned in the eu. Initially, the tainted feed was traced to 74 producers. However, later the Dutch ministry found 24 more such producers who had in turn delivered feed to around 2,000 farms that were thought to be unaffected before.