E.coli scare sees Russia withdraw US boneless beef
A representative for the agency said that three strains of the bacteria had been found in a shipment of beef from the US. “The beef was withdrawn because laboratory monitoring identified contamination with three strains of E.coli – E.coli O157:H7, E.coli O145 and E.coli O45”, they said.
They warned: “Human infections siga-producing strains of E.coli can lead to serious consequences for the health, including the development of life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome.”
Rosselkhoznadzor said it was monitoring the situation to identify how many people had consumed the infected meat. It also reported that US company United Processing LLC, which was the supplier of contaminated beef from the US, is not registered as a supplier of meat products to the Russian market.
New restrictions
Rosselkhoznadzor is currently trying to identify how the contaminated products were able to enter the Russian market, bypassing the veterinary control in the US. Russian veterinarians are now assessing the security situation for imported meat products from the US, and it is possible that new restrictions on US imports could be imposed in the wake of the scandal.
“We need to take concrete steps in this case, but it is not clear what they should be – United Processing LLC is not an authorised supplier, and we cannot deprive it of the right to supply products to Russia, because it simply does not have such right,” said the representative of Rosselkhoznadzor.
“However, there will be some consequences for the US. On 4 August there were already negotiations assigned between the veterinary services of our countries, and Rosselkhoznadzor will require further tightening of the monitoring system for the export of meat products.
"For the US, the current scandal is extremely disadvantageous, because their business community has repeatedly tried to restore exports of pork, turkey and other meat to Russia, but in view of such incidents, that now looks unlikely.”
