About 124 poultry farmers and the LTO lobby group sued the Dutch state on Monday April 15 because of a scandal in 2017 with an infected egg that killed millions of eggs and 3.5 million chickens.

Claimants claim the Government Food Safety Council (NVWA) neglected the 2017 fipronil crisis, which led to the closure of hundreds of poultry farms, some still not fully open.

They claim that officials ignored reports from November 2016 that fipronil was found in eggs after using a skin-removing agent made by the Dutch company ChickFriend. And if the Council staff took the reports seriously, many farms would not use fipronil-containing pesticide to control the type of chicken lice, and the consequences would not be so widespread.Last year, an official report on the contaminated egg scandal sharply criticized egg producers, government inspectors and ministers for their inability to put food safety in the first place. In particular, the report noted that ministers of health and agriculture were not able to properly inform parliament and the public about the scandal, while agriculture put profits above food safety and did not conduct proper checks for prohibited substances.For reference: finopronil is a broad-spectrum insecticide that belongs to the chemical family of phenylpyrazoles. It destroys the central nervous system of insects by blocking GABA-driven chloride channels and glutamate-controlled chloride channels. It is used to treat and prevent infection with parasites such as fleas and ticks.