Dysentery outbreak reveals food production chaos

RIGA - The production of one of Latvia's leading dairies, Tukuma Piens, was suspended Jan. 21 following an order by the food administration authorities after a dysentery outbreak in Latvia.

Latvian Agriculture Minister Atis Slakteris ordered the national veterinary authority chief to suspend production at Tukuma Piens until there has been a full investigation, spokeswoman Dagnija Muceniece announced.

Muceniece said the decision had been made in order to protect the population from the further spread of dysentery and so that people do not lose confidence in Latvia's food industry. But there is no clear evidence that its products are to blame for the outbreak.

More than 250 people fell ill with dysentery at the beginning of January. The victims included soldiers of the guard battalion in Jelgava, people from the Riga Center for the Visually Disabled, one of whom later died, and people in various towns across Latvia.

An investigation conducted by the National Environment Health Center found links between Tukuma Piens and the outbreak. The infection occurred when using thermally unprocessed curd and sour cream produced by Tukuma Piens.

Nevertheless, investigators were not able to determine that it was precisely this dairy that was responsible, because the company has not retained samples of products from the period when the outbreak began.

The State Veterinary Service is continuing work at Tukums, a small town some 40 kilometers west from Riga. All results will be reported to the public, said Muceniece.

In the meantime, the voices supporting the dairy grow louder. The Latvian Central Union of Dairies demanded at an emergency board meeting Jan. 23 that Welfare Minister Andrejs Pozarnovs should bear responsibility for the consequences of the National Environment Health Center report that resulted in the closure of the Tukuma Piens dairy.

The report inflicted damage not only on Tukuma Piens but also the entire dairy industry in Latvia, said the union's board chairman Janis Skvarnovics.

The dairy men are perplexed and annoyed by the report, which stated that people had contracted dysentery through the use of Tukuma Piens products that have not been processed thermally.

Skvarnovics pointed out that neither Tukuma Piens nor any other dairy member of the union turned out products lacking thermal procession.

Currently, the food industry is controlled by various institutions subordinated to two ministries - Agriculture and Welfare. This delays the information exchange between the institutions involved.

Both ministries have agreed that all food administration control will be subordinated to the Ministry of Agriculture, the Latvian daily Diena reported Jan. 23.