Hospital serves up mouse head on plate

Italian PHD Gabriella Dobrowolny holds a genetically modified mouse at Romes La Sapienza University in this February 7, 2001 file photo. A hospital patient in Finland found a mouse head among the steamed vegetables on his plate.

HELSINKI (Reuters) - A hospital patient in Finland found a mouse head among the steamed vegetables on his plate.

"Understandably, he lost his appetite," said Sakari Kela, chief administrator at the Northern Karelia Central Hospital.

The health of the patient in Joensuu, eastern Finland, had not been compromised by the dead rodent, Kela said on Saturday.

The severed head most likely originated in a bag of Belgian vegetables. The body has not been found and being "a Belgian mouse, the rest of it could be anywhere in Europe", Kela said.

(Reporting by Sakari Suoninen)