Poultry unlikely source of gastro-bug

The contaminated No 2 bore on Brookvale Rd, Havelock North

The latest test results into the origin of the gastro outbreak has revealed it is unlikely to have come from chicken manure.

There had been suggestions that chicken manure from the nearby Te Mata Mushrooms site had been responsible.

Hastings mayor Lawrence Yule said this evening that the interim ESR Report showed that the genotype was not consistent with poultry.

However it does not exclude any source of contamination at this stage.

"The field is wide open as to how it occurred."

AN ESR spokesman said there were number of different strains of campylobacter jejuni present.

The report links a large number of the clinical cases from the Havelock North outbreak with campylobacter found in the water.