BERLIN: Germany blamed vegetable sprouts for a bacteria outbreak that has killed at least 33, left some 3,000 ill and cost farmers across Europe hundreds of millions of euros in lost sales.
After a weeks-long hunt for the elusive source of the contamination, German officials said they were confident they had found the origin.
"It's the sprouts," Reinhard Burger, the president of the Robert Koch Institute, the national disease centre, told a news conference on the outbreak of enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) in northern Germany.
"People who ate sprouts were found to be nine times more likely to have bloody diarrhoea or other signs of EHEC infection than those who did not," he said, citing a study of more than 100 people who fell ill after dining in restaurants.
Test results on a packet of vegetable sprouts recovered from the rubbish bin of two sick people living in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia later provided the first direct trail evidence for the virulent bacteria.
The sprouts, which showed traces of the EHEC strain 0104, were grown at a farm in the northern village of Bienenbuettel on which suspicion had fallen last weekend. The farm has been closed and all its products recalled.
The government had earlier lifted a warning against eating raw tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers which had dealt a stinging blow to farmers at the peak of the fresh produce season in Europe.
All 33 confirmed fatalities, three of which were reported Friday, have been in Germany except for one woman who died in Sweden after visiting Germany.
The warning against raw salad vegetables, first issued two weeks ago, has cost growers in Europe hundreds of millions of euros (dollars) in lost sales and sparked diplomatic spats across Europe.
The Netherlands welcomed the development as "excellent news".
After a weeks-long hunt for the elusive source of the contamination, German officials said they were confident they had found the origin.
"It's the sprouts," Reinhard Burger, the president of the Robert Koch Institute, the national disease centre, told a news conference on the outbreak of enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) in northern Germany.
"People who ate sprouts were found to be nine times more likely to have bloody diarrhoea or other signs of EHEC infection than those who did not," he said, citing a study of more than 100 people who fell ill after dining in restaurants.
Test results on a packet of vegetable sprouts recovered from the rubbish bin of two sick people living in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia later provided the first direct trail evidence for the virulent bacteria.
The sprouts, which showed traces of the EHEC strain 0104, were grown at a farm in the northern village of Bienenbuettel on which suspicion had fallen last weekend. The farm has been closed and all its products recalled.
The government had earlier lifted a warning against eating raw tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers which had dealt a stinging blow to farmers at the peak of the fresh produce season in Europe.
All 33 confirmed fatalities, three of which were reported Friday, have been in Germany except for one woman who died in Sweden after visiting Germany.
The warning against raw salad vegetables, first issued two weeks ago, has cost growers in Europe hundreds of millions of euros (dollars) in lost sales and sparked diplomatic spats across Europe.
The Netherlands welcomed the development as "excellent news".
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