Tests at organic farm for deadly E coli prove negative so far

Despite initial confident assertions on Sunday that the probable source of an outbreak of the E coli bacterium that has so far killed 22 people, had been found at an organic farm in Lower Saxony, officials said yesterday that of 40 samples taken, tests on 23 had proved negative.

Romanian greenhouse employees throw cucumbers for destruction in Bucharest yesterday as sales collapsed on Romanian markets because of the fear of E. coli contamination. Daniel Mihailescu / AFP Photo

European Union agriculture ministers will meet in emergency session today as the search continues for the origin of a particularly lethal E coli outbreak.

After confident assertions on Sunday that the probable source had been found at an organic farm in the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany, officials said yesterday that of 40 samples taken, tests on 23 had proved negative.

Twenty-two people have died, and at least 2,200 have been taken ill, victims of an aggressive, supertoxic strain of the bacterium, first detected in May. But the initial laboratory findings dismiss hopes that the investigation had at last established the cause.

Despite the failure of tests so far to establish a link, the farm has not yet been cleared. The Lower Saxony agriculture ministry said investigations were continuing, though no short-term conclusions were expected.

The preliminary announcement, that the farm at Bienenbuettel, 80km south of Hamburg, was the likely source of the outbreak, had deepened the anger already felt by Spanish vegetable growers, who complained of "devastating" losses when their cucumbers were wrongly blamed.

They will not quickly forget that it was German officials who pointed accusing fingers at their produce.

And despite yesterday's development, the central role in the outbreak of Germany, and especially Lower Saxony, suggests that the answers will eventually be found there, or not far away.

Spain's determination to press for substantial compensation will concentrate minds when the EU discusses the crisis in Luxembourg this afternoon. Marton Hajdu, spokesman for the Hungarian presidency of the EU, said food safety ministers and the EU agriculture and health commissioners would also be present at the talks, designed to "take stock of the situation of the EHEC [strain of E coli] outbreak both from the market perspective and also food safety".

In his announcement on Sunday, Gert Lindermann, Lower Saxony's agriculture and consumer affairs minister, said a link had been found between some varieties of sprouts grown at the farm and all major outbreaks of E coli to hit Germany. There were other clues to suggested the farm was the source, he said. Several restaurants affected by the outbreak had received deliveries of the sprouts and served them as salad ingredients.

The Associated Press visited the farm and reported that two employees were among those who have become ill. All the farm's produce, including fresh herbs, fruits, flowers and potatoes, had been recalled.

The farmer, Klaus Verbeck, told the newspaper Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung he used no fertilisers and had no idea how his sprouts might have been contaminated.

Mr Lindemann had listed mung beans, broccoli, peas, chickpeas, garlic, lentils and radishes among the 18 sprout mixtures under suspicion. Sprouts are grown in steam in barrels at 38 degrees Celsius and this, he said, presented an ideal environment for bacteria to multiply.

It was possible that either water had been contaminated with E coli or that the bacteria originated in seeds bought in Germany or abroad. Germans were warned not to eat sprouts until further notice and to continue to avoid tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce.

Sprouts have been implicated in other E coli outbreaks. In 1996, radish sprouts were identified as the cause when the disease killed 12 people and made more than 12,000 ill in Japan.

Germany remains acutely embarrassed by the diplomatic repercussions of the affair. Within five days of the first death being recorded on May 21, German officials announced that cucumbers from Spain had been identified as a source of the bacterium.

An alert was issued to other EU countries, Spanish cucumbers were withdrawn from sale and two greenhouses in Andalusia were closed until analysis of soil and water samples showed them to be unconnected with the outbreak.

As the focus of suspicion switched locations, the sense of grievance heightened among Spanish growers, who dumped their produce on the steps of the German embassy in Madrid.

Spain is already one of the economic sick men of Europe, with unemployment higher than in any other EU country, standing at 20.7 per cent, six percentage points worse than the Irish Republic, in second place.

It could hardly afford this crisis. Question marks over its produce brought fruit and vegetable exports to a virtual standstill and threatened 70,000 jobs. The cost in lost sales reached an estimated €200 million (Dh1.07 billion) a week.

Germany and the EU are now bracing themselves for legal proceedings. Spain's health minister, Leire Pajin, said: "We want compensation for the grave and irreparable damage done to Spain. We condemn the slow response and are concerned about how this crisis has been managed from the very start."

Spain accuses German officials of being far too hasty in attributing blame.

Nor is the crisis over. German officials said that although the source of the recent outbreak was elsewhere, tests on the Spanish cucumbers nevertheless revealed traces of another E coli strain.

Farmers are not the only people affected. Knock-on effects are felt by businesses involved in packing, distribution and catering.

Pedro Barato, president of the Spanish agricultural federation Asaja said a small recovery in exports since the attention moved to vegetables grown in Germany was negligible compared with the losses.

"A lot of damage has been done and someone has to pay," he said.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, defends the initial German response.

She said she was ready to consider EU compensation for Spain and regretted the damage suffered by its producers, but officials in Germany had acted legally.

* With additional reporting by Associated Press.