5 people in Pa. hit with salmonella

(AP)

Five people in Pennsylvania are among at least 76 nationwide who have fallen ill from a strain of salmonella linked to ground turkey, an outbreak under investigation by the federal government.

Health officials in California have said one person there has died, while the 76 illnesses are spread among 26 states.

In Pennsylvania, four of the cases were in Pittsburgh. Dr. Bruce Dixon, director of the Allegheny County Health Department, said the four cases were the result of people eating tainted ground turkey that was bought at supermarkets and improperly prepared, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ( http://bit.ly/nZSi6Q) reported Wednesday.

The federal government hasn't ordered a recall because it doesn't know the source of the salmonella causing the illness. In the meantime, health officials are urging consumers to cook ground turkey thoroughly, to 165 degrees.

News of the probe gave Carol Masteller some pause as she shopped Wednesday afternoon at the Nature's Pantry natural foods store in State College. She said she usually buys ground turkey at large supermarkets, and mixes it with beef to make hamburgers or spaghetti.

"I'm a little nervous about it," Masteller, 61, of Bellefonte, told the AP. "I don't think it's going to change (my habits) but it does make me a little nervous."

The freezer at Nature's Pantry was stocked with boxes of frozen ground turkey meatballs and sausage from Shelton's, a California-based company which describes itself on its site as the largest natural poultry marketer in the country. Store owner Michelle Briggs said the investigation did not affect those products, and that she had no plans to pull them from the shelf.

"It's more (about) ... large-scale factory farming and then the large-scale processing of meats that leads to contamination of the product," Briggs said when asked her reaction to the federal government's ground turkey investigation.

"Shelton is a family-owned farm, and they're processing all in one place. They know where their animals are being processed," she said. "They're processed right there at the facility, and then shipped out from there."

Illnesses in the outbreak date back to March, and the Centers for Disease Control has said that cultures of ground turkey from four retail locations between March 7 and June 27 showed contamination with the same strain of salmonella, though those samples were not specifically linked to the illnesses. The CDC said preliminary information showed that three of those samples have been linked to the same production establishment but it did not name the retailers or the manufacturers.

Another of Briggs' customers, Helen Manfull, urged caution about placing blame on any specific place or company before an investigation was complete. She cited confusion over a deadly E.coli outbreak this year in Europe that was initially blamed on cucumbers from Spain before farms there were cleared and tests traced the outbreak to a vegetable sprout farm in Germany.

"I would not buy ground turkey right now, that's all ... So I would just avoid it until it settles down," said Manfull, 77, of State College. "I say ferret it out, find out what the problem is, but be careful."

At Penn State, Lisa Wandel, the university's director of residential dining, said items including ground turkey lasagna and ground turkey burger patties would remain on the menu, though her office would closely monitor guidance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and manufacturers. She said the school already follows food safety protocols recommended by the government, and would stop using ground turkey if directed by the government or manufacturers.

The CDC estimates that 50 million Americans each year get sick from food poisoning, including about 3,000 who die. Salmonella causes most of these cases.

The most common symptoms of salmonella are diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within eight hours to 72 hours of eating a contaminated product. It can be life-threatening to some with weakened immune systems.