National greenhouse cucumbers are the safest for the time being

Europe is still stricken by a “vegetable panic.” One country after another is sealing its borders to European cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. The unknown infection that triggered an outbreak in northern Germany has affected over 1,500 people, 17 of whom have died. Almost 500 of the infected have contracted hemolytic-uremic syndrome. An ever-increasing incidence of the disease has already been recorded in the US, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK, and other countries.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says that the enterohemorrhagic strain of Escherichia coli (E. coli), which infected the Europeans, is an entirely new microorganism which medicine has never come across before. The preliminary results of genetic studies show that the O104:h4 strain is a form of two different mutated E. coli bacteria. This is the true cause of such a fast spread of the infection among European residents and of its danger to human life. WHO food safety expert Hilde Kruse believes that the new strain is “more infectious and toxic” as compared to the bacteria that engendered it. The bacterium is distinguished by its uncommon resilience. After passing without hindrance through the stomach’s acidic medium, it settles on the intestine walls, producing poisonous toxins. Doctors can do very little now to counter its ruinous effect. This may result in disastrous conditions, affecting everything from red blood cells to the kidneys.

Academics are so far unable to explain why the bacterium proved to be so pathogenic. EU authorities have pointed out several fundamental distinctions in the current outbreak of the infection: women account for more than two thirds of the patients, and there is a very sizable share of young and middle-aged adults among the most-affected patients. Besides, this enteric infection can be transmitted not only by way of foodstuffs but also from person to person. The characteristic symptoms are bloody diarrhea, fever, nausea, as well as speech impairment and cramps.

The source of the infection has not yet been found. It may be organically-produced fresh vegetables. It will be recalled that the E. coli was first spotted in the cucumbers imported from Spain but the subsequent laboratory tests “acquitted” the Spanish vegetables, showing that the strain found in them differed from the one that infected people.

As a result, many countries have limited imports of vegetables from the EU. For example, on June 2 Russia imposed a ban on fresh vegetables imports from all the EU countries, while the fresh vegetables that had already crossed the border were to be withdrawn from retail trade until the ban was lifted, said Gennady Onishchenko, chair of Russia’s Committee for Consumer Goods Supervision and the Chief Public Hygiene Doctor of the Russian Federation. In his words, the committee has already sent a relevant instruction to the Russian Customs Service.

Ukraine has also tightened cross-border control over the vegetables being imported from EU countries. Prime Minister Mykola Azarov recently assured the public: “Ukraine began to take measures as soon as this event occurred. But we did not make a show of it. Border checkpoints were instructed to inspect EU vegetables more thoroughly, which they are effectively doing.” He also added: “The phytosanitary service and the Ministry of Public Health have received a clear-cut instruction: to prevent the delivery to Ukraine of the vegetables affected by this infection.”

Yet we will not manage to discontinue the import of vegetables as easily as the Russians did. According to Stanislav Yukhnenko, chief plant protection agronomist at Kombinat Teplychny Plc., our WTO membership will make this impossible. So he advises the Ukrainians to consume nationally-grown vegetables — but only those supplied by large commercial producers. He thinks they are cleaner and safer, and farmers are keeping an eye on them. Once there is a suspicion that a fresh cucumber or tomato is the source of poisoning, Teplychny will be in for a host of inspections, the agronomist says. “As we are the region’s largest producer of greenhouse vegetables, we are also the first to be inspected,” Yukhnenko says. “So we are closely watching the quality of our products.” Besides, under the current Ukrainian law, the public hygiene authorities check nationally-grown vegetables every 10 days for hazardous substances and pathogenic microorganisms, including E. coli. “So far, we have not found this [E. coli strain] in our vegetables,” Yukhnenko reassures The Day. Yet he admits that one should not trust public hygiene service tests completely. For the virus that kills people in Germany is entirely new. “The microorganisms that we know have mutated, which resulted in a hitherto unknown virus. So it will take time to study it,” the agronomist says.

Yukhnenko still claims there is more to this than meets the eye. “Nature and climate conditions are changing fast, and what was a Spanish problem yesterday may become a Ukrainian one today,” Yukhnenko says. He further explains: as climate has changed in our latitudes, the pests that used to fly as far as Moldova because they felt uncomfortable and cold in Ukraine, can now easily cross our border. “For example, the South American tomato leaf miner Tuta absoluta, a black-listed pest in this country, was found last year in the milk about to be brought to Ukraine. The quarantine service banned the import of this milk because the spotted pest was out of bounds for Ukraine. So that product was not sold,” Yukhnenko says. “To tell the truth, I suspect that, unfortunately, Tuta will be let in this year. It is an extremely dangerous pest. We are very much afraid of it. For, to combat it, we will have to use chemicals that may harm the farming produce.” Farmers are trying on their own to avoid the risk by looking for a bio agent against the pest.

The agrarians are convinced that the state must help them fight pests. For, even though the Spanish cucumbers were “pardoned,” their farmers have incurred colossal losses. Spanish Agriculture Minister Rosa Aguilar says that the “Hamburg accusations” cause the Spanish agrarian sector to lose 200 million euros a day. Farmers say the same fate may also befall the Ukrainian farming sector unless the state imposes a proper quarantine regime. “Even they can’t acquit themselves, although all the top academic luminaries are there, but we don’t have this,” says Volodymyr Chernyshenko, chairman of the Kombinat Teplychny Plc. board of directors. “The state must show deeper concern for national greenhouse producers.”