At the request of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Consumers, a rapid risk assessment has been prepared concerning the outbreak of E Coli in Germany.

This joint report, produced by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), aims to give a short summary of reported Shiga toxin/verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC/VTEC) prevalence and incidence in humans, food and animals.

​Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) is a group of pathogenic Escherichia coli strains capable of producing Shiga toxins, with the potential to cause severe enteric and systemic disease in humans.

An update of the initial rapid risk assessment on the outbreak of E. Coli in Germany, prepared at the request of the European Commission, first published on 27 May 2011.

This document is an update of the EFSA/ECDC joint rapid risk assessment of 29 June and aims to add new information to this and earlier initial rapid risk assessments (27 May and 14 June 2011).

This report presents the results of the second round of the external quality assurance scheme for typing of verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli.