EU AGRICULTURE ministers, following emergency talks in Luxembourg, have proposed a €150 million aid package for farmers whose businesses have been badly affected by the E. coli outbreak, which has infected more than 2,400 people and killed 23 across Europe. However, most groups representing farmers say this amount will barely cover one week’s loss of income in Spain.
While the rate of infection from the deadly new strain of E.coli is slowing, scientists are no nearer to proving organic bean sprouts caused the outbreak, Germany said yesterday.
Farmers across Europe have seen sales plummet after salad vegetables were first blamed. In the north German port of Hamburg, centre of the outbreak, officials said one lead – a packet of bean sprouts in the fridge of one affected man – did not test positive for the E.coli bacteria.
Hamburg’s state health minister Cornelia Pruefer-Storcks said clinics dealing with the outbreak “tell us the situation is gradually improving. We are seeing the first patients discharged, others are getting much better, so the first glimmers of hope are on the horizon.”
However she also told a news conference that all test results so far on the bean sprouts had so far have been inconclusive.
Yesterday, the European Commission warned national governments against jumping to conclusions in trying to identify the source of the outbreak. In Strasbourg, commissioner John Dalli said further tests were needed before Germany’s latest theory – that bean sprouts caused the outbreak – could be verified.
He also stressed that the initial suspicion raised by the German authorities that cucumbers from Spain were the cause had not been confirmed by any available test results.
“It is crucial that national governments do not rush to give information on source of infection which is not proven by bacterial analysis as this spreads unjustified fears in the population all over Europe and creates problems for our food producers selling products.”
Mr Dalli added that the commission was following developments closely and that as of yesterday morning, there were no confirmed laboratory findings to identify the cause of the outbreak.
“ It [the commission] will decide on the appropriate course of action the moment laboratory tests confirm any epidemiological findings,” he said, adding that his first priority was to stop hospitalisations. – (Additional reporting Reuters)