France has launched an investigation into why some 24 babies have been born without hands or arms in some rural areas since 2000.

It comes after several new cases were reported this week and a separate investigation opens into reports that calves and possibly chickens have also been born without limbs in the same three agricultural areas.

Another 11 cases have emerged in the eastern region of Ain, prompting officials to open a fresh inquiry after a previous probe failed to come to any conclusions.

Malformed births have also occurred in two areas in western France - four in the Morbihan, Brittany area between 2011 and 2013 and three in neighbouring Loire-Atlantique in 2007 and 2008.

The reports have fuelled fears among the public that some kind of toxin in food, water or air could be responsible.


Health minister Agns Buzyn said: "I want to know, I think all of France wants to know. It could be an environmental factor. Maybe it is due to what these women ate, drank or breathed in."

Image: Health minister Agnes Buzyn says the affected families' histories will be examined

An inquiry in October found the incidence of limb defects in the affected regions to be no greater than elsewhere in France but now the probe has been widened.

The new inquiry is to be conducted by the health agency and the sanitation, food and environment agency.

Ms Buzyn said: "It is very complicated, we need to investigate the history of families in cases which sometimes date back 10 years or more."

First conclusions are due by the end of January and a full report is expected to be completed by June.

Epidemiologist Emmanuelle Amar, who first revealed the birth defects in Ain, said the only thing mothers of the affected babies had in common was that they lived in cereal-growing areas amid fields of corn and sunflower.

The parents of a girl born without forearms in the village of Guidel, in the Morbihan region, said the inquiry should focus on the 2011-13 period, when most of the cases appeared.

The girl's father Samuel Bernard said: "No point in looking ahead. Focus on what happened then."

Ms Amar said that in the Ain region farmers had also reported calves being born without tails and without flanks.

An official at the national food safety agency Anses said it had now opened a separate investigation into calves in the three same regions.

Poultry may also be investigated as there are suspicions about chickens being affected.

Hospital registries show limb defects occur in 1.7 of every 10,000 births, or about 150 cases each year in France.

Birth defects can have multiple causes, including chromosome disorders, drug use or exposure to toxic substances.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, about 10,000 babies worldwide were born with malformed or missing limbs after their mothers received the drug thalidomide to treat morning sickness.