Brussels, 31/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - The source of the contamination of the food chain by a particularly virulent strain of the e.coli bacteria found in Spanish cucumbers has not yet been identified, announced the European Commission on Tuesday 31 May, as the EU's Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health was meeting in Brussels to shed light on the issue and as the German authorities shed doubt, for the first time, on the fact that Spanish cucumbers were to blame for the wave of food poisoning and deaths in Europe. According to Germany, the strain of the bacteria analysed from samples of Spanish cucumbers sold in a supermarket in Hamburg, north Germany, was not the same as the strain giving rise to uremic, haemolytic syndrome (UHS) in the poisoned individuals The initial suspicion has forced Spain to close two organic farms in Andalusia and some countries have introduced embargoes (Belgium on cucumber imports from Spanish distributors whose products are under suspicion, and Russia on imports of suspect vegetables from Spain and Germany).
Pia Ahrenkilde, a spokesperson for the European Commission, said that nobody was yet able to say where the poisoning arose, but the most important thing was to understand, develop an overview of the situation, identify the source of the contamination threatening public health and eliminate the bacteria from the food chain. The spokesperson said coordination was taking place via national experts and the Commission's early warning systems, and that the information was being complied by the Commission which hoped to be able to draw conclusions next week in the form of a report. Ahrenkilde said samples were being analysed and the results would be available very soon. According to information available to the Commission on Tuesday, the wave of food poisoning confirmed as due to the e.coli strain in question has resulted in 3 deaths and 327 individuals poisoned in Germany (the German authorities, however, report 15 deaths to date and 373 poisonings), 30 poisonings in Sweden, 13 poisonings in Denmark, 6 poisonings in France, 7 in the Netherlands, one in Switzerland and 3 suspected poisonings in the United States. The Commission spokesperson said the Commission was not responsible in any way for the blame being laid on Spanish cucumbers, saying information about Spanish cucumbers had been provided to it by the Germany authorities, but nobody had said that the source of the outbreak was in Spain, only that the bacteria had been found on products of Spanish origin from two farms mentioned as possible sources of the outbreak. (A.N./transl.fl)