British supermarkets 'must take German food off the shelves': Expert's warning as 11 UK victims diagnosed with mutant E.coli



More than 1,800 ill as outbreak spreads across EU

WHO says E.coli bug is 'super-toxic' mutant strain

E.coli cases in 10 European countries and the U.S.



British supermarkets have been urged to take German produce off their shelves halt the spread of the deadly mutant E.coli outbreak.

One of Britain's leading microbiologists made the warning as UK retailers continued to import vegetables from Germany - despite concerns that contaminated produce is spreading the toxic bacteria.

In a revelation that will shock consumers, Tesco and Lidl confirmed that they were still stocking 'small quantities' of German-sourced produce in their branches.

Mutant strain: The new form of E.coli is responsible for 19 deaths and carries genes that make it resistant to many common antibiotics. It also produced toxins that can cause kidney failure

Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University, said supermarkets should take a 'safety first' approach and remove German produce from their shelves.



He told the Daily Telegraph: 'This is a very dangerous bug because a surprisingly large proportion of the people who have been infected have gone on to develop nasty complications.'

The warning came as health officials warned the E.Coli outbreak could continue for months.



Hundreds have been infected by the epidemic in the last few days, including four new cases in Britain.

The latest victims mean 11 in the UK have been diagnosed with the infection, including four Germans. Three remain in intensive care after developing a potentially lethal form of the infection.

The Health Protection Agency said all the UK cases were in England and were related to recent travel to Germany, where the infection has struck at least 1,733.



So far there have been no cases of the bug spreading through person-to-person contact.



Scientists have yet to find the source of the epidemic, which has killed at least 19 and struck down more than 1,800 in the last three weeks.

The mutant form of the food poisoning bug is the deadliest E.coli outbreak for decades, and has spread to 11 countries in Europe and to the U.S.



The bacterium responsible, which is a completely new strain, is able to pump poison into the bloodstream, causing seizures and kidney failure and leaving victims needing dialysis.

Worryingly, the virulent mutation is also resistant to most antibiotics and health officials have warned that the medicine can even make it more aggressive.



The outbreak has been blamed on contaminated salad vegetables and consumers have been advised to wash all fruit and vegetables before eating.



The source: Scientists are working to pinpoint the cause but believe salad vegetables may have been contaminated with manure

Travellers to Germany are warned not to eat raw tomatoes, cucumber or salad leaves.



Virtually everyone who has been infected had been through Germany in recent weeks.



The hunt for the source of the infection has centred on the region around Hamburg in the north of the country.



Police have launched criminal investigations against two food wholesalers and a restaurant in the city, although no link to the contagion has been identified.



The headline from Friday's Mail

But Andreas Hensel, of Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, warned: ‘In the majority of outbreaks the agent is never isolated. We may never know what caused this.’



The scale of the outbreak has shocked medical experts, who have warned it has the potential to spread from person to person through poor hygiene and close contact.



Symptoms include bloody diarrhoea, fever, vomiting and abdominal cramps.

More than 500 of those affected have suffered a rare complication called haemolytic uraemic syndrome, which is more serious.

There have been almost 200 new cases in Germany in the last two days but the country’s disease control centre said new infections peaked on May 21 and 22, and had dropped since then.



Professor Reinhard Burger, head of the Robert Koch Institute, the German body that is leading the country’s response to the outbreak, said: ‘[The number of cases] will come down but how long it will take I’m not sure. It could be weeks, months.’



And Professor Reinhardt Brunkhorst, a leading kidney specialist, said: ‘The number of new infections appears to be stabilising somewhat. But we are dealing here in fact with the biggest epidemic caused by bacteria in recent decades.’



German officials initially blamed Spanish cucumbers for the outbreak but were later forced into a humiliating climbdown.



Furious Spanish farmers have threatened to take legal action and claim the slur has cost them almost £180million a week in lost sales.



Russia has banned the import of any vegetables from the EU. Prime minister Vladimir Putin said he would not risk exposing Russians to ‘poison’.



Some supermarkets in Britain have reported a small drop in sales of salad, despite the recent hot weather.



Tesco said it stocked ‘small quantities’ of cauliflower from Germany in its stores, but insisted its suppliers observed strict hygiene standards.



The National Farmers Union has voiced fears that British supermarkets could be flooded with ‘cheap, unwanted cucumbers from within the EU’.

