BB FANS

Spain has expressed anger at links being made between Spanish cucumbers and a deadly E. coli outbreak.

The country's agriculture minister said Germany pointed to Spanish cucumbers "without having reliable data".

Meanwhile, German officials have voiced doubts about whether the Spanish cucumbers they are investigating carried the deadly E. coli strain.

The outbreak has led to 16 deaths - 15 in Germany and a woman who died in Sweden after travelling to Germany.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany's national disease institute, says more than 1,150 people within Germany have been affected by enterohaemorrhagic E. coli, also known as EHEC.

In many instances, the gastrointestinal infection has led to Haemolytic-uraemic Syndrome (HUS), which causes kidney problems and is potentially fatal.

The RKI has confirmed 373 cases of HUS in Germany.


BBC

Outbreak is new form of E. coli
By James Gallagher Health reporter, BBC News



A leading microbiologist has warned the E. coli outbreak may worsen
Continue reading the main story
Europe's E. coli outbreak
BBC

Cucumbers could soon be cool again

The cucumber has been unfairly trampled on by the Germans in the search for the E-coli culprit. Now its honour is being restored

So, the fightback has begun. No one is more in need of a makeover than the humble cucumber, unfairly trampled on by the Germans in the neverending search for the E-coli culprit. Spanish MEP Francisco Sosa-Wagner yesterday brandished a cucumber as he declared: "We need to restore the honour of the cucumber." Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa has taken the first step. Thanks to him, the cucumber is to boldly go where no salad vegetable has gone before – into space. Meanwhile, we will be looking out for more signs of the rehabilitaion of the humble, much-vilified Cucumis sativus.

Guardian

Spain rejects €150m payout offer for farms hit by E coli fears

The European commission on Tuesday promised to pay more than €150m (£134m) to farmers hit by the E coli crisis, following robust lobbying by Spain and France.

The agriculture commissioner, Dacian Ciolos, proposed sharing out to farmers affected by falling sales amid the public health panic the sum of €150m, equating to payments worth about 30% of the average market price for the unsold crops.

But at the meeting of agriculture ministers in Luxembourg, representatives from several member states demanded more help.

Spain immediately warned the €150m would not be enough. Spain has suffered disproportionately from the economic impact of the outbreak, in part because it grows a significant share of Europe's salad produce but also because blame for the bacteria outbreak at first was attributed to its cucumber crop.

"No, Spain does not see €150m as sufficient," the country's agriculture minister, Rosa Aguilar, said. She was backed by her French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire.

Ciolos then said he would "come back tomorrow with an improved proposal", but warned that Spanish demands for compensation of 90% or even 100% of market price were unrealistic. "We have to bear in mind that this is public money, and we have to account for its use," he said.

Guardian

EU raises compensation offer to farmers

The EU has increased to 210m euros (£187m) its offer of compensation to farmers who have lost income due to an outbreak of E. coli.

It had initially offered 150m euros, but EU Farm Commissioner Dacian Ciolos raised the figure after coming under pressure from major producers.

The offer is still a fraction of farmers' estimates of their losses, which go as high as 417m euros a week.

The outbreak has so far left at least 26 dead and infected 2,400.


BBC

Germany still seeking reason for E. coli outbreak

BERLIN – German authorities say they haven't yet been able to resolve how sprouts at a farm became contaminated with an aggressive strain of E. coli that has been blamed for 33 deaths.

Officials determined Friday that sprouts grown at the farm in Lower Saxony state, in northern Germany, were the culprit in the outbreak — which has sickened more than 3,000 people.

But the state's agriculture ministry said Sunday that it still isn't clear whether workers brought in the bug, or whether the bacteria got onto the farm on seeds or by some other means.

The ministry says tests on some 1,100 samples, nearly 300 of them from the farm, are ongoing in an effort to answer that question. But it says that they have produced no positive results yet.

AP

The deadly E.coli bug has now claimed 35 lives and Germany's health minister has warned more people will die from the deadly bacteria in Europe.

On Friday, health officials said it was now safe to eat tomatoes, cucumbers and leafy salads - all food originally suspected as the source - after German-grown sprouts from an organic farm in the Lower Saxony area were found to have caused the outbreak.

The farm has been shut down and is no longer delivering vegetables to market.

The German government had come under fire for failing to pin down the cause of the outbreak which prompted many in Europe to shun vegetables over the past month.

Even Britons started avoiding or excessively washing fresh produce, despite experts saying there is no evidence food on sale in the UK had been affected.

A survey for The Grocer found 38% of people across Britain were worried about falling ill from eating fruit and vegetables following the killer bug's surface.

Of these, 10% of people questioned said they were "very worried".

The research showed 45% have changed the way they prepare food at home in the wake of the health crisis.

And 7% said they are cutting down or avoiding eating fresh fruit and vegetables altogether, regardless of origin.

SkyNews