E. coli outbreak in Europe not from sprouts: initial tests

[arikara]

Source: CBC

German officials announced Monday that initial tests show sprouts from an organic farm in the country's north are not the cause of the E. coli outbreak as first suspected.

Lower-Saxony state's Agriculture Ministry said 23 of 40 samples from the sprout farm suspected of being behind the outbreak have tested negative for the highly aggressive, "super-toxic" strain of E. coli bacteria.

It said tests are underway on the other 17 sprout samples.

"The search for the outbreak's cause is very difficult as several weeks have passed since its suspected start," the ministry said in a statement, cautioning that further testing of the sprouts and their seeds was necessary to achieve full certainty.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/06/06/ecoli-sprouts-germany.html

[truthisfreedom]

1. How many companies are they going to destroy on the way to trying to find the source?

Seems rather reckless to keep announcing the "source" and then retracting it after sales are smashed.

[valerief]

2. The meme is out there. Organic = E. Coli. nt

[arikara]

3. They would love that, wouldn't they

Much more profit in poisoning with chemicals, killing with radiation and doing heaven knows what with genetic tinkering.

[valerief]

4. I think that was why we got the 'organic farm is source' story in the first place.

Trashing organic leaves us with the Monsanto foodstuff and free market, self-regulating meat industry.

[Downwinder]

5. How much can you genetically modify a vegetable before it supports animal bacteria?

[valerief]

7. Is it still a vegetable then? nt

[WatsonT]

9. These aren't contaminated because they were GMOs

you use manure to fertilize (yes that's organic) and the bacteria stays on the veggies.

You have to wash veggies well, no matter how natural producers claim they are.

[No Elephants]

14. +1

[JDPriestly]

6. The Germans will not fall for that meme.

But -- I had to explain to some of my friends that you still have to wash vegetables that are grown organically.

Just in case any city dwellers out there don't understand this, soil that is rich in natural nutrients often has things like horse or steer manure in it -- often, often, often.

[harun]

11. The American's will.

[No Elephants]

15. +1

[WatsonT]

8. Maybe they could stop declaring the source until they know

Just a thought.

[Bragi]

10. Here's the problem...

It sounds sensible "to stop declaring the source" until positive confirmation is available.

However, if the health authorities follow this guidance and remain silent on what products they "suspect" might be causing the outbreak until they have scientific confirmation of contamination, then people are going to continue consuming suspected products, some of whom will get sick and even die.

Then, after you've announced the confirmed source, everyone will know that the contaminated product was suspected of being the source some time before any public announcement was made, but the authorities chose not to warn people to stay away from it until it was confirmed.

Try explaining that to people who got sick, or watched a loved one die.

[WatsonT]

12. Randomly flailing about and blaming this or that only makes the authorities seem incompetent

and it ruins those industries.

A much better solution would be "we don't know what is causing this but until we do we would advise cleaning thoroughly and cooking all fresh produce".

Just picking sources out of a hat is not helping anyone.

[Bragi]

16. People don't "cook" salads, so that's a problem

I think a better choice here is to advise people that if they want to reduce their personal risk, that they should avoid eating any raw, high-risk salad makings.

Alternately, you can tell them specifically which types of raw vegetables may be suspect.

In either case, there will be economic impacts.

However, just saying "we'll let you know when we have identified the source of the contamination" is not likely to calm things down, can result in additional people eating things that may bring on illness, and sets the health authorities up for future grief.

[MissHoneychurch]

13. Latest news is

that the sprouts still are the most probable cause as they found more links to other cities were people got sick from eating sprouts.
They have taken a lot more samples from the farm that grows those sprouts.

[Bragi]

17. And this...

The number of reported cases is declining, which means the contaminated product is probably working its way out of the system.

This being so, it is quite possible -- maybe likely -- that no-one will ever positively identify how the contamination was spread.