Deadly cucumbers not behind EU outbreak. So what is?

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Deadly cucumbers not behind EU outbreak. So what is?

Deadly cucumbers from Spain are not cause of fatal E.coli outbreak, Germany

concedes. But if not deadly cucumbers, then what? Officials don't know.

By t Belsie, Business editor / May 31, 2011

Spanish cucumbers are not the cause of an E.coli outbreak linked to 16

fatalities and some 1,200 infections in Europe, German authorities conceded

Tuesday.

But that admission, five days after Germany warned its citizens not to eat

Spanish produce, has only deepened the mystery surrounding the virulent

outbreak, centered in Germany, and has come too late for Spanish cucumber

growers.

The industry now faces what growers worldwide often endure in the aftermath of a

serious outbreak: a plunge in sales that can take months or even years to

recover from. Besides Germany, at least six European nations have stopped

accepting Spanish produce. Russia has halted produce shipments from Spain and

Germany and is now threatening to extend the prohibition to the entire European

Union.

The United States has intensified its inspections of incoming Spanish cucumbers,

tomatoes, and lettuce. However, vegetable imports into the US tail off during

the summer when US vegetable farms are in full swing, and Spanish imports are

minuscule, anyway. Last year, Mexico and Canada accounted for 97 percent or more

of US imports of each of the three vegetables.

Spanish farms, which reportedly already are laying off workers, claim to be

losing some 200 million euros ($286 million) per week in lost sales, Reuters

reports. Spain's agriculture minister said her country would be asking for

extraordinary compensation.

The bigger question remains unresolved: What caused the source of the virulent

strain of bacteria, known as Shiga toxin-producing E.coli? German authorities

had found E.coli in Spanish cucumbers, but later said it was not the same

strain.

Authorities have linked the virulent E.coli to 15 German fatalities as well as

the death of one Swede who had traveled to Germany. Authorities also blame the

bacteria for some 1,200 cases of illness in Germany as well as for citizens of

Spain, Sweden, Britain, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, and the US who had

recently been to Germany.

That's a far higher toll than in America's 1993 E.coli outbreak at Jack in the

Box restaurants, which was linked to the deaths of four children and nearly did

in the restaurant chain, or the 2006 E.coli fresh spinach outbreak, held

responsible for three fatalities and dealt a huge blow to the US spinach

industry.

– Material from Reuters was used in this report.