Forum Views ()
Forum Replies ()
Read more with google mobile :
Germany pins down E.coli: It's the bean sprouts
|
Edition:
U.S.
Article
Comments (3)
Slideshow
Editor's Choice
Scientists race to avoid climate change harvest
Astronaut trio blasts off for space station
Face transplant on woman mauled by chimp
Natural gas, renewables long-term trend: GE
Vestas bullish on building U.S. wind turbines
Nuclear regulator withheld information: report
Spain arrests three suspects in Sony hack
E.coli found in bean spouts: German officials
Evidence for acupuncture PMS relief shaky
Deaths no higher in coffee-lovers with heart disease
Follow Reuters
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
YouTube
Read
Casey Anthony murder trial experts describe tot's bones
2:04pm EDT
Woman mauled by chimpanzee gets face transplant
3:28pm EDT
Exclusive: Swiss, U.S. in talks on tax probe settlement
11:57am EDT
Spain arrests Anonymous members over Sony attack
4:22pm EDT
OPEC says oil supply gap looms later this year
9:18am EDT
Discussed
112
Alabama governor signs nation’s toughest immigration law
73
U.S. debt default unimaginable, creditors say
69
Obama holds off challengers despite economy
Watched
Bodypainters apply their skill
Mon, Jul 19 2010
Outrage over point blank teen killing in Pakistan
Thu, Jun 9 2011
Four-year-old takes art world by storm
Mon, Jun 6 2011
Germany pins down E.coli: "It's the bean sprouts"
Tweet
Share this
Email
Print
Related News
Russia set to end EU vegetable import ban
12:36pm EDT
Analysis & Opinion
Even “healthy” food can make you sick
Related Topics
World »
Health »
1 / 4
File picture illustration shows beansprouts and salad sprouts in Berlin June 6, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Pawel Kopczynski/File
By Brian Rohan
BERLIN |
Fri Jun 10, 2011 1:27pm EDT
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany said on Friday that deadly E.coli bacteria that have killed 31 people and hit farmers across Europe almost certainly came from contaminated bean sprouts grown at an organic farm in northern Germany.
"It's the bean sprouts," said Reinhard Burger, head of the German center for disease control, confirming that the salad vegetable was the common denominator among the thousands who had fallen sick.
Government scientists said traces of the deadly strain were detected in a packet of bean sprouts from the farm found in a family's rubbish bin in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Two of the family fell ill after eating them.
Their announcement came just hours after Burger's team in Berlin said it had identified bean sprouts or similar shoots as the most likely source of the outbreak, citing a study of patients and the food they ate.
The German government had come under fire at home and around Europe for failing to pin down the cause of the outbreak that has stricken some 3,000 people in 12 countries. All cases have been traced back to near Hamburg in northern Germany.
About a quarter of patients in the month-long outbreak have developed a severe complication called hemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) affecting the blood, kidneys and nervous system.
The state consumer protection agency in North Rhine-Westphalia said it had found the first direct E.coli link to the organic farm in the neighboring state of Lower Saxony, near the small town of Bienenbuettel.
"According to our knowledge to date, the bean sprouts originated from the farm," the state agency said.
Burger, the head of the Robert Koch Institute, earlier told a news conference the evidence clearly pointed toward the farm in Lower Saxony.
"All the registered cases in this study had consumed these bean sprouts," said Burger. "The test method made it possible in an epidemiological way to isolate the source of the outbreak, with a high probability, to the consumption of bean sprouts."
"People who consumed sprouts were nine times more likely to have bloody diarrhea than those who did not," he said.
Bean sprouts, a common salad ingredient grown from a variety of seeds, are popular in Germany, where they are served in salads and often in sandwiches. The institute said Burger's comments covered a wide range of shoots.
The investigation has focused on the organic farm for days, and the agriculture minister for Lower Saxony said separately on Friday he was convinced this was where the outbreak had begun.
CHAIN OF EVIDENCE
Gert Lindemann, the minister, had earlier said that alfalfa, mung bean, radish and arugula sprouts from the farm near Bienenbuettel might all be linked to the outbreak.
"The chain of evidence pointing to bean sprouts is flawless. For us, the source of the outbreak is definitely the farm in Bienenbuettel," Lindemann said on Friday. The farm has been shut down and is no longer delivering vegetables to market.
Authorities said on Friday it was now safe to eat tomatoes, cucumbers, and leafy salads, food originally suspected as the source, but bean sprouts should be avoided while studies continued.
Germany had also came under fire for hastily blaming the outbreak on Spanish cucumbers, comments it later withdrew, and a failure to produce conclusive evidence of the source.
The European Union raised its compensation offer for farmers hit by plummeting sales to 210 million euros ($302 million) from 150 million, made after Germany first blamed cucumbers from Spain and other salad vegetables.
Organic producers had attracted suspicion because they use manure rather than chemical fertilizer, putting crops more at risk of contamination. The economic damage to Europe's farming industry could reach half a billion euros.
The neighboring Netherlands welcomed the German findings. "This is very good news," said Murco Mijnlieff, a spokesman for the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation on Friday after the cucumber warning was lifted. "It is the first step to consumer confidence in those products."
The Netherlands exports around 70 percent of its cucumber output to Germany. The losses for the Dutch alone are estimated at 70 million euros a week.
In Germany the death toll from the E.coli epidemic rose by one on Friday after authorities confirmed a woman who died on June 3 was a victim of the bacteria.
German authorities said the outbreak was still a threat, despite signs of slowing, and warned the death toll may rise.
"I cannot give an all-clear. New infections are still to be expected but the number new infections is clearly falling," Health Minister Daniel Bahr said.
(Additional reporting by Ivana Sekularac in Amsterdam, Eva Kuehnen, and Matthias Inverardi; editing by Erik Kirschbaum, David Stamp and Jonathan Lynn)
World
Health
Tweet this
Link this
Share this
Digg this
Email
Reprints
We welcome comments that advance the story directly or with relevant tangential information. We try to block comments that use offensive language, all capital letters or appear to be spam, and we review comments frequently to ensure they meet our standards. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters.
Comments (3)
jrj90620 wrote:
Gotta steam those sprouts,like I do,and you will kill off any bacteria.
Jun 10, 2011 11:24am EDT -- Report as abuse
RexMax46 wrote:
Better to eat the cow than its feces!
Jun 10, 2011 3:48pm EDT -- Report as abuse
bobw111 wrote:
Great… Now health food will kill you.
What’s a person got to do to live for ever anyway???…
Jun 10, 2011 4:06pm EDT -- Report as abuse
See All Comments »
Add Your Comment
Social Stream (What's this?)
© Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters
Editorial Editions:
Africa
Arabic
Argentina
Brazil
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Latin America
Mexico
Russia
Spain
United Kingdom
United States
Reuters
Contact Us
Advertise With Us
Help
Journalism Handbook
Archive
Site Index
Video Index
Reader Feedback
Mobile
Newsletters
RSS
Podcasts
Widgets
Your View
Analyst Research
Thomson Reuters
Copyright
Disclaimer
Privacy
Professional Products
Professional Products Support
Financial Products
About Thomson Reuters
Careers
Online Products
Acquisitions Monthly
Buyouts
Venture Capital Journal
International Financing Review
Project Finance International
PEhub.com
PE Week
FindLaw
Super Lawyers Attorney Rating Service
Reuters on Facebook
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.
Other News on Saturday, 11 June 2011 Greek PM rebuffs austerity opponents, vows June vote
|
Miami Miccosukee brush fire 50 percent contained
Promise and peril in antiretroviral based prevention
Morality in Media Calls on NBC to Halt TV Series 'The Playboy Club'
Drought affecting farmers in England, France and Germany
Embattled goaltender Roberto Luongo to start for Nucks in Game 5
Yanks reliever Joba Chamberlain out for season with elbow injury
Saudi Arabia must stop use of death penalty: Amnesty
|
Titans receiver Kenny Britt arrested for marijuana possession
Karzai urges Pakistan to help end Taliban insurgency
|
Jack White and Karen Elson divorcing, throwing a party
Selena Gomez rushed to hospital
Germany pins down E.coli: It's the bean sprouts
|
Mexicans protest against Alabama's new anti-illegal immigration law
EU states agree on tougher sanctions on cybercrime
|
Pandora increases IPO value by 48 percent
|
Tracy Morgan apologizes for anti-gay jokes
|
The Book of Mormon favored to sweep Tony Awards
|
Spain arrests Anonymous members over Sony attack
|
Court affirms rules on cable access to sports
|
Rocker Jack White and wife throw a divorce party
|
Fighting erupts in Zlitan, Turkey offers Gaddafi exit
|
Helicopters open fire to disperse Syrian protesters
|
South Sudan accuses north of air attack, clashes flare
|
Iraq government says Congress delegation not welcome
|
Venezuela's Chavez has surgery in Cuba
|
Ex-Syracuse forward Rick Jackson tries out for Cavs
Plaxico Burress says he's ready to put jail behind, play football
Weary Rafa falls in London quarters, Murray advances; Wozniacki rolls in Copenhagen
Rock solid: Robert Rock midway leader at BMW Italian Open
Robert Karlsson has sights set on good weekend at St. Jude Classic
Auburn football coach Gene Chizik gets raise to $3.5 million per season
Bob Tway sets the pace at Hickory Classic with nine-under par 63.
Mindy Kim holds lead, Tseng within two at LPGA State Farm Classic
Sarah Palin Documentary Coming Exclusively to AMC Theatres
"Moore" challenges ahead for ex-UConn star in WNBA play
Apple recalls some Verizon iPad 2 tablets
|
Yemen says 30 killed in Islamist clashes in south
|
Clinton warns against new colonialism in Africa
|
Pennsylvania teen, 17, dies while holding her breath in campground pool
German officials see no E.coli fault at organic farm
|
Lions kill 6 people in southern Somalia
Japan anti-nuclear protesters rally three months after quake
|
Johnny Sauter's mistake hands Ron Hornaday Jr. Texas Truck win
Somali police say killed al Qaeda's Fazul Mohammed
|
Al Shabaab says official's niece did not kill him
Pakistan vows support for Afghan peace process
|
MLS: Thierry Henry's second-half goal lifts New York over New England
Bombs in Iraq's Mosul kill four, injure 50: police
|
Granderson, A-Rod homer as Yanks pound struggling Indians in Bronx
Canucks tip Bruins in Game 6, move within win of Stanley Cup
Bahrain appoints parliament head to lead reform talks
|
U.S. launches preliminary fact-finding investigation into alleged Ramdev wealth sources
Mexicos suspended soccer players to undergo further drug tests
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights