Germany E.coli scare

Germany is in a scare since Wednesday over the origin of a killer bacteria that has left at least 16 dead. The scare has also triggered the threat of a lawsuit and virtually shutting down of vegetable imports across Europe.

German scientists and health officials have identified the virulent E. coli bacteria responsible for the outbreak, which has mainly affected northern Germany, but were unable to say what caused it or who was responsible.

In Madrid Spain threatened to sue Hamburg for damages after the German city pointed to Spanish cucumbers as the source of the outbreak.“We do not rule out taking action against the authorities who called into question the quality of our products,” Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told Spanish radio.

Germany maintained its warning to consumers about eating raw cucumbers, tomatoes or lettuce, seen as the most likely source for the contamination that has killed 15 in Germany and one woman in Sweden and left hundreds seriously ill in hospital.

Initial tests on cucumbers imported from Spain found that while these were indeed contaminated with a potentially deadly enterohamorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), the bacteria’s strand was not that responsible for the current outbreak.“As before the source remains unidentified,” according to Cornelia Pruefer-Storcks, the chief health official in the northern port-city of Hamburg, which has seen the highest proportion of cases.

EHEC poisoning, in the worst of cases, can lead to full-blown haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a condition associated with bloody diarrhoea and kidney failure.

A spokesman for the German Federation of Farmers (DBV) spoke of a “catastrophic” mood among vegetable producers“They are losing at the very least two to three million euros ($ 3 to 4 million) per day,” because “consumers everywhere are suspicious” of their produce, he said.

The Federation of Fruit and Vegetable Producers, for its part, estimated losses at between 4 and 5 million euros per day.

“I haven’t had any cucumbers to sell since Friday as my wholesaler has stopped delivering them. Lettuce and tomatoes are also selling poorly,” a market stall vendor said in Berlin.