French E coli outbreak likened to deadly German drama

Jun 26, 2011, 10:05 GMT

Paris - This week's outbreak of E Coli in the south-western French city of Bordeaux bears the hallmarks of the outbreak that claimed dozens of lives in Germany, French media reports said Sunday.

'Like in Germany, the strain is very virulent, it produces a lot of toxins, it is very resistant to antibiotics. Adults are affected and, besides renal complications, it can cause neurological complications,' Professor Patrick Berche, head of the bacteriology department at Necker Hospital in Paris told Le Journal du Dimanche weekly.

Seven people were hospitalized this week in Bordeaux with E coli.

Two of the patients have type 0104 enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) - the strain that has killed over 40 people, mostly in Germany, since May.

Several of the patients had eaten vegetable sprouts at an end-of-term party at a municipal creche in the Bordeaux suburb of Begles.

The sprouts were grown from rocket, fenugreek and mustard seeds that came from a British mail order seed and plant company.

Ipswich-based Thomson & Morgan told the BBC on Saturday that it was cooperating in the French investigation but that it was 'highly unlikely' the seeds were responsible.

The company had sold 'hundreds of thousands of packets of these seeds' throughout France, Britain and other parts of Europe every year and had no reported problems.' It was more likely that 'the way that they were used and handled' had caused the contamination.

Britain's Food Standards Agency, which is assisting the French in their investigation, said there had been no reported cases there of food poisoning linked to the seeds.

The FSA is however advising people not to eat sprouted seeds, including alfalfa, mung beans (or beansprouts) and fenugreek unless cooked until steaming hot throughout.

Of the five people still in hospital in Bordeaux at the weekend, one 78-year-old woman's condition deteriorated Saturday and was described as 'worrisome' by the regional health authority.

No link had been established yet with the German E coli outbreak, which came from bean sprouts grown on an organic farm.

It has also not yet been established that the Bordeaux outbreak was caused by the vegetable sprouts.

The origin of the seeds used to make the sprouts is unclear.

Thomson & Morgan says it sources its seeds all over the world.

Francois-Xavier Weill, a microbiologist at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, which is carrying out tests on samples taken from the patients, told the Journal du Dimanche the seeds could have come from the same consignment as the seeds used to make the German sprouts.

Frederic Lefebvre, French Secretary of State for Consumer Affairs, on Friday demanded that sales of the seeds be immediately suspended and recommended people not eat the seeds.

Necker's Patrick Berche also recommended against eating vegetable sprouts.

The outbreak comes days after a E coli outbreak in a group of children in the northern city of Lille. That outbreak came from frozen supermarket beef burgers.