WASHINGTON — U.S. marshals, at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, seized livestock and horse feed on July 20 stored under what F.D.A. classified as "filthy conditions" at the Bi-County Farm Bureau Cooperative Association Inc., in Florence, Ky.

"The F.D.A. will not tolerate a company’s failure to adequately control and prevent filth in its facility," said Michael Chappell, F.D.A.’s acting associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. "The F.D.A. is prepared to use whatever legal means are necessary and appropriate to keep potentially contaminated products out of the marketplace."

F.D.A. investigators discovered live and dead mice and evidence of bird activity throughout the facility during a recent inspection of the Bi-County feed mill. F.D.A. laboratory analysis of samples collected during the inspection confirmed the presence of rodent urine, rodent feces, rodent hairs and rodent-gnawed holes in bags, in and around food products.

Marshals, acting on a warrant issued by the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Kentucky, seized all F.D.A.-regulated food products exposed to rodent and bird contamination at the facility. The seized products violate the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act because they were kept in conditions in which they may have become contaminated with filth.

Bi-County manufactures feed and stores commercial feeds received through interstate commerce. The products are sold locally to farms and stables.