Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Europe shuts out Spanish vegetables: producers
31 May 2011 1946 hrs
MADRID - Spanish fruit and vegetable sales have halted across nearly all Europe because of a fatal E.coli outbreak blamed on its cucumbers, the industry's export federation said Tuesday.
The impact had spread and was inflicting estimated losses of 200 million euros (US$290 million) a week, said the Spanish fruit and vegetable producer-exporter federation, FEPEX.
Asked which countries had stopped buying Spanish produce, FEPEX president Jorge Brotons told a news conference: "Almost all Europe. There is a domino effect on all vegetables and fruits."
German authorities said they detected the potentially dangerous bacteria on organic cucumbers imported from two producers in southern Spain's Andalucia region.
"Orders are plunging daily," Brotons said.
"It is as if an order had gone out across Europe not to buy Spanish produce," he added. "Every week we are throwing out hundreds of tonnes of produce."
Exports of vegetables, especially cucumbers, peppers, lettuce, and tomatoes, had plunged but fruit exports had also been affected, said the federation's director general, Jose Maria Pozancos.
He expressed concern, too, for exports of stone fruits, which were just coming into season.
Of 9.4 million tonnes of Spanish fruit and vegetables exported in 2010, the biggest share, 24 percent, went to Germany, according to the producers' federation.
The outbreak of E.coli bacteria poisoning erupted more than two weeks ago, sickening hundreds and killing 15 people -- 14 in Germany and one in Sweden who was believed to have been infected in Germany.
In Spain, a 40-year-old man who recently returned from Germany was in intensive care in northern San Sebastian with a possible E.coli infection, yet to be confirmed with tests.
Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli can result in full-blown haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a disease that causes bloody diarrhoea and serious liver damage and which can result in death.
The Spanish government has promised to approach the European Union for compensation over the "enormous" damages caused to its fruit and vegetable export industry.
Madrid rejects any blame for the outbreak.
It said there had been no infections in Spain and it argued there was no evidence the infection came from the cucumbers' origin in Spain rather than in later handling elsewhere.
Spain has called on Germany to wrap up investigations into the source of the outbreak quickly.
Agricultural Minister Rosa Aguilar complained Germany had pointed to Spain as the origin "without having reliable data" during a meeting of EU agricultural ministers in Debrecen, Hungary.
"Today, we have to present the issue as a common problem and have to ask for a compensation not only for Spanish producers but for all the European producers concerned by the situation," she said.
The Andalucian region says suspect cucumber batches from the two distributors in Almeria and Malaga have been withdrawn pending soil, water and produce tests, with results due Wednesday.
Samples from suspect batches were sent to a laboratory in the northwest province of Galicia for testing.
- AFP/ir
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/1132351/1/.html
yukun
MADRID - Spanish fruit and vegetable sales have halted across nearly all Europe because of a fatal E.coli outbreak blamed on its cucumbers, the industry's export federation said Tuesday.
The impact had spread and was inflicting estimated losses of 200 million euros (US$290 million) a week, said the Spanish fruit and vegetable producer-exporter federation, FEPEX.
Asked which countries had stopped buying Spanish produce, FEPEX president Jorge Brotons told a news conference: "Almost all Europe. There is a domino effect on all vegetables and fruits."
German authorities said they detected the potentially dangerous bacteria on organic cucumbers imported from two producers in southern Spain's Andalucia region.
"Orders are plunging daily," Brotons said.
"It is as if an order had gone out across Europe not to buy Spanish produce," he added. "Every week we are throwing out hundreds of tonnes of produce."
Exports of vegetables, especially cucumbers, peppers, lettuce, and tomatoes, had plunged but fruit exports had also been affected, said the federation's director general, Jose Maria Pozancos.
He expressed concern, too, for exports of stone fruits, which were just coming into season.
Of 9.4 million tonnes of Spanish fruit and vegetables exported in 2010, the biggest share, 24 percent, went to Germany, according to the producers' federation.
The outbreak of E.coli bacteria poisoning erupted more than two weeks ago, sickening hundreds and killing 15 people -- 14 in Germany and one in Sweden who was believed to have been infected in Germany.
In Spain, a 40-year-old man who recently returned from Germany was in intensive care in northern San Sebastian with a possible E.coli infection, yet to be confirmed with tests.
Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli can result in full-blown haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a disease that causes bloody diarrhoea and serious liver damage and which can result in death.
The Spanish government has promised to approach the European Union for compensation over the "enormous" damages caused to its fruit and vegetable export industry.
Madrid rejects any blame for the outbreak.
It said there had been no infections in Spain and it argued there was no evidence the infection came from the cucumbers' origin in Spain rather than in later handling elsewhere.
Spain has called on Germany to wrap up investigations into the source of the outbreak quickly.
Agricultural Minister Rosa Aguilar complained Germany had pointed to Spain as the origin "without having reliable data" during a meeting of EU agricultural ministers in Debrecen, Hungary.
"Today, we have to present the issue as a common problem and have to ask for a compensation not only for Spanish producers but for all the European producers concerned by the situation," she said.
The Andalucian region says suspect cucumber batches from the two distributors in Almeria and Malaga have been withdrawn pending soil, water and produce tests, with results due Wednesday.
Samples from suspect batches were sent to a laboratory in the northwest province of Galicia for testing.
- AFP/ir
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/1132351/1/.html
yukun
Germany not sure Spanish cucumbers to blame for bacteria spread - Channel NewsAsia
BERLIN: Germany on Tuesday voiced doubt over whether Spanish cucumbers were responsible for the spread of a killer bacteria that has left at least 16 dead as Madrid blasted Berlin's crisis management.
Authorities in the northern German city of Hamburg said fresh tests indicated that cucumbers imported from Spain, initially suspected of making hundreds ill, may not be to blame.
Tests on two cucumbers revealed they carried the dangerous enterohamorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) bacteria, but not the strain responsible for the current massive contamination which has killed 15 in Germany and one in Sweden.
"As before the source remains unidentified," Hamburg's chief health official Cornelia Pruefer-Storcks told a news conference.
"Out of four cucumbers on which we have been able to confirm the presence of the EHEC pathogen, we have been able to establish - as far as two of them are concerned - that they carry the EHEC pathogen, but not the strain responsible for the current difficult developments," she said.
The two other cucumbers were still undergoing analysis, she added.
"Independently of the result of the two remaining tests, it was right to make public the results of our investigation as the contamination could very well cause EHEC," she said.
"It would have been irresponsible with such a number of ill people to keep quiet about a well-grounded suspicion.
"Protecting people's lives is more important than economic interests," she added.
Spanish fruit and vegetable sales have halted across nearly all Europe because of the outbreak, the industry's export federation said.
And both Spain and The Netherlands demanded compensation from the European Union because of the sudden slump in vegetable exports.
The situation is "extremely serious" for the farming sector, said Spanish Agricultural Minister Rosa Aguilar, estimating the loss to vegetable sales in Spain at more than 200 million euros ($288 million) a week.
"We are disappointed by the way Germany is handling the situation," she said, blaming officials who "pointed at Spanish cucumbers and Spain as the origin of this infection without having reliable data".
Germany remains convinced that raw vegetables are responsible for the virulent EHEC outbreak, and said it would offer subsidised loans to affected local farmers.
EHEC poisoning, in the worst of cases, can lead to full-blown haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a condition associated with bloody diarrhoea and kidney failure.
The Robert Koch Institute, Germany's national disease institute, said on Tuesday it has recorded 373 confirmed cases of HUS, along with six deaths.
But regional authorities, who have been faster in reporting fatalities, said at least 15 people have died in Germany so far, mostly in the north, and more than 1,200 have been infected.
And in Sweden, the Soedra Aelvborg hospital in Boraas said a woman in her 50s who was treated for EHEC after a trip to Germany had died, in the first reported fatality outside the country.
The latest reported death in Germany was that of an 87-year-old woman who died in Paderborn, in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Late Tuesday, the Czech health ministry reported that a US tourist, a woman who was recently in north Germany, has been hospitalised in Prague with symptoms of E. coli infection.
Around Europe, other cases - confirmed or suspected - have been reported in Denmark, Britain, The Netherlands, Austria, France, Spain and Switzerland, all of them apparently stemming from Germany.
European health and consumer policy commissioner John Dalli on Tuesday said determining the source of the outbreak was "an absolute priority" and that the European Commission was working with the German authorities.
He added in his statement that it was "positive that the number of new infection cases seem to be declining", but stressed that vigilance was needed at this stage "as we are still working to pin down the possible source of the contamination."
Meanwhile, the Hygiene Institute at Muenster's University Clinic in western Germany announced it had put together a test to quickly identify people infected with the so-called Shiga toxin-producing E. Coli.
The test allows identification within hours of the pathogenic agent in EHEC, the clinic said in a statement.
The agent is "especially virulent and able to resist antibiotics," the hospital said.
"This strand can be described as a hybrid or a chimera that combines different virulent traits," said Helge Karch, a professor at the Muenster clinic.
- AFP/de
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/1132452/1/.html
yukun
Authorities in the northern German city of Hamburg said fresh tests indicated that cucumbers imported from Spain, initially suspected of making hundreds ill, may not be to blame.
Tests on two cucumbers revealed they carried the dangerous enterohamorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) bacteria, but not the strain responsible for the current massive contamination which has killed 15 in Germany and one in Sweden.
"As before the source remains unidentified," Hamburg's chief health official Cornelia Pruefer-Storcks told a news conference.
"Out of four cucumbers on which we have been able to confirm the presence of the EHEC pathogen, we have been able to establish - as far as two of them are concerned - that they carry the EHEC pathogen, but not the strain responsible for the current difficult developments," she said.
The two other cucumbers were still undergoing analysis, she added.
"Independently of the result of the two remaining tests, it was right to make public the results of our investigation as the contamination could very well cause EHEC," she said.
"It would have been irresponsible with such a number of ill people to keep quiet about a well-grounded suspicion.
"Protecting people's lives is more important than economic interests," she added.
Spanish fruit and vegetable sales have halted across nearly all Europe because of the outbreak, the industry's export federation said.
And both Spain and The Netherlands demanded compensation from the European Union because of the sudden slump in vegetable exports.
The situation is "extremely serious" for the farming sector, said Spanish Agricultural Minister Rosa Aguilar, estimating the loss to vegetable sales in Spain at more than 200 million euros ($288 million) a week.
"We are disappointed by the way Germany is handling the situation," she said, blaming officials who "pointed at Spanish cucumbers and Spain as the origin of this infection without having reliable data".
Germany remains convinced that raw vegetables are responsible for the virulent EHEC outbreak, and said it would offer subsidised loans to affected local farmers.
EHEC poisoning, in the worst of cases, can lead to full-blown haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a condition associated with bloody diarrhoea and kidney failure.
The Robert Koch Institute, Germany's national disease institute, said on Tuesday it has recorded 373 confirmed cases of HUS, along with six deaths.
But regional authorities, who have been faster in reporting fatalities, said at least 15 people have died in Germany so far, mostly in the north, and more than 1,200 have been infected.
And in Sweden, the Soedra Aelvborg hospital in Boraas said a woman in her 50s who was treated for EHEC after a trip to Germany had died, in the first reported fatality outside the country.
The latest reported death in Germany was that of an 87-year-old woman who died in Paderborn, in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Late Tuesday, the Czech health ministry reported that a US tourist, a woman who was recently in north Germany, has been hospitalised in Prague with symptoms of E. coli infection.
Around Europe, other cases - confirmed or suspected - have been reported in Denmark, Britain, The Netherlands, Austria, France, Spain and Switzerland, all of them apparently stemming from Germany.
European health and consumer policy commissioner John Dalli on Tuesday said determining the source of the outbreak was "an absolute priority" and that the European Commission was working with the German authorities.
He added in his statement that it was "positive that the number of new infection cases seem to be declining", but stressed that vigilance was needed at this stage "as we are still working to pin down the possible source of the contamination."
Meanwhile, the Hygiene Institute at Muenster's University Clinic in western Germany announced it had put together a test to quickly identify people infected with the so-called Shiga toxin-producing E. Coli.
The test allows identification within hours of the pathogenic agent in EHEC, the clinic said in a statement.
The agent is "especially virulent and able to resist antibiotics," the hospital said.
"This strand can be described as a hybrid or a chimera that combines different virulent traits," said Helge Karch, a professor at the Muenster clinic.
- AFP/de
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/1132452/1/.html
yukun
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Humongous Donut
In celebration of the launch of The Simpsons Movie on DVD
The World’s Largest Donut 6m x 6m wide - 500kg pink icing and 30kg sprinkles
*sorry the image are a bit blur. I already tried my best!http://www.rfg.com.au/dk/dfiles/default_detail.asp?id=15&t=WORLD'S+LARGEST+DONUT!
Baoyun
world's most expensive Donut (charity)
HOT, GLAZED, DELICIOUS,SHIPLEY DONUT.
Bid on this donut to help many thousands of people that have been victimized by Hurricane Katrina and those are seeking refuge in the Bayou City.
$5,200.00 USDUSD
http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/expensive230.html
Baoyun
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