"In order to manage the toxic waste crisis, sanitary surveillance has been established around farms near the polluted sites," a government group charged with handling the crisis said in a statement.

"When it proved necessary, a systematic culling of the animals was decided on and carried out in cooperation with the concerned farm owners and the Ministry of Livestock Production," it said in a statement.

"In total 455 pigs showed signs of toxic poisoning and were slaughtered by the authorities, 242 of which were on Thursday in the Akouedo and Abobo neighbourhoods of Abidjan," said the woman from the ministry charged with overseeing the slaughter, Louise Achi.

The 213 other animals were put down in two areas of the capital at the end of October, while more were due to be slaughtered on Thursday in the Akouedo district of the capital, she said.

All the carcasses were incinerated where they were slaughtered.

"We have finished the pigs. Now we just have to catch and incinerate the fish contaminated in and around Djibi", a village 15 miles (24 kilometres) north of Abidjan, she added.

The crisis group said earlier Thursday that ther search was on for one farmer who had "relocated his farm" to try and escape the slaughter.

The government called on "the public to be doubly vigilant" and only to consume meat from authorised slaughterhouses".

Pork is an affordable delicacy sold across Abidjan markets.

The culling comes after hundreds of tons of petroleum toxic waste from a ship chartered by a European company were dumped illicitly across more than a dozen open-air rubbish tips around Abidjan.

The toxic sludge was dumped in mid-August by Ivorian firm Tommy, whose boss was arrested after the poisoning scandal broke.

The waste gave out fumes that poisoned thousands of inhabitants of Abidjan resulting in at least 10 deaths and the hospitalisation of 69 other people. Doctors reportedly received more than 100,000 calls for medical help.

The waste has been excavated and is in the process of being shipped out for incineration in France.

Victims of the pollution brought a lawsuit in the Netherlands against Swiss-based multinational Trafigura, which chartered the vessel that offloaded the waste in Ivory Coast.

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