Since 1 May 2011, an outbreak of a new strain of pathogenic EHEC bacteria has claimed the lives of more than thirty people so far in Germany and infected more than 3,200 people with partly heavily consequences for people's health, see here for the IFOAM EU Group press releases. The epicentre seems to be Northern Germany, where most people where infected. Authorities identified a farm in Lower Saxony that produces organic sprouts to be the most likely the cause. However, it is still unclear how the bacteria could enter the farm as it doesn't use any inputs from animal sources, such as manure. The IFOAM EU Group emphasis that the outbreak of EHEC is not a question of a specific production systems and opposes all unjustified attempts to make organic system responsible.

FiBL has now published a document with background information on EHEC. In the document, the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture presents a summary of scientific facts on the issue. It also confirms that since farming works with nutrient cycles, farmyard manure and slurry are valuable natural resources used to grow plants on all types of holdings and under all types of management. Moreover, livestock farming on organic farms presents a lower risk in terms of the presence of EHEC as has been demonstrated by the incidences seen over the past few years. For example, in 2007 only one case out of a total of 26 E. coli outbreaks in the EU was due to the consumption of organic sausages (Source: ESFA). The Fibl document is available here