Finding the source
July 5, 2011
The European Union has banned some seed and bean imports from Egypt, after fenugreek seeds from the country were deemed responsible for recent outbreaks of a deadly E. coli epidemic in Europe. EU authorities said Tuesday a shipment from Egypt in 2009 was the likely source of the outbreak that killed 49 people.
More than 4,100 people in Europe and North America were infected in two outbreaks of the deadly strain - one centered in northern Germany and the other around the French city of Bordeaux.
The European Commission report said the bean and seed imports from Egypt would be banned until the end of October. All seeds from the company linked to the contaminated shipment would have to be tested and destroyed.
"The report published today leads us to the withdrawing of some Egyptian seeds from the EU market and to a temporary ban on imports of some seeds and beans originating from that country," health commissioner John Dalli said on Tuesday.
The outbreak had baffled German health authorities as they searched for the source of contamination. Previous suspicion that contaminated cucumbers imported from Spain were to blame for the illnesses proved to be false. Bean sprouts from a farm in northern Germany were eventually identified as the source, but it was not clear how the produce of the farm had become infected with the E. coli bacterium.
Author: Matt Zuvela (dpa, afp, Reuters)
Editor: Michael Lawton