Russia bans some EU veggies in E. coli scare

A market seller gives a cucumber to a woman in a fruit and vegetable market in Malaga, southern Spain on Monday. Vegetables from Spain may carry the dangerous E.coli bacteria, which is suspected of killing some people in Germany and has caused hundreds of people to become ill across Europe. Sergio Torres/AP

Russia's state sanitary agency says it has banned imports of some fresh vegetables from Spain and Germany in response to a bacteria outbreak.

Rospotrebnadzor said Monday it had banned imports of cucumbers, tomatoes and salad greens from the two countries pending further notice.

The agency said in a statement it may also ban the imports of all fresh vegetables from EU member nations due to the lack of reliable information about the source of infection and its spread.

The E. coli outbreak — suspected to have been caused by organic cucumbers from Spain — has killed 11 people in Germany and sickened hundreds of Europeans.

Meanwhile in Austria on Monday, officials inspected supermarkets for Spanish vegetables suspected of contamination.

Spain, meanwhile, went on the defensive, saying there was no proof that the E. coli outbreak has been caused by Spanish vegetables.

Spain's Secretary of State for European Affairs, Diego Lopez Garrido, said Madrid might take action against those pointing fingers at his southern European nation.

"You can't attribute the origin of this sickness to Spain," Lopez Garrido told reporters in Brussels. "There is no proof and that's why we are going to demand accountability from those who have blamed Spain for this matter."

Austrian authorities sent inspectors to 33 organic supermarkets Monday to make sure Spanish vegetables suspected of contamination have been taken off shelves. The move came after a recall and sales ban of cucumbers, tomatoes and eggplants that originated in Spain and were delivered to stores in Austria by German companies.

"If anything is found to be left over, it will be tested and taken off the market," Austrian Health Ministry spokesman Fabian Fusseis said.

While two German tourists have tested positive for enterohaemorrhagic E.coli, also known as EHEC, no so-called homegrown cases have been reported, he added.

Contaminated cucumber

In Germany, officials said even though they know that Spanish cucumbers tainted with EHEC have carried the bacteria, they still have not been able to determine the exact source.

"We have found the so-called EHEC pathogens on cucumbers, but that does not mean that they are responsible for the whole outbreak," Andreas Hensel, president of Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, said on ZDF television.

Spanish Health Minister Leire Pajin, noting that no Spanish cases have been reported, urged Germany to speed up its probe and establish proof of what has caused the outbreak. Germany's allegations "create alarm and affect the producers of a country without any evidence," she said.

In Poland, officials said Monday that a woman has been hospitalized in serious condition after returning from a trip to the northern German city of Hamburg, where at least 467 cases of intestinal infection have been recorded.

© The Canadian Press, 2011