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Employee at Jennie-O Turkey in Melrose Test Positive for Tuberculosis

11/20/2013 - 2:45 AM

MELROSE, Minn. (AP) - A worker at a Jennie-O Turkey Store plant in central Minnesota has tested positive for tuberculosis.

A spokesman for Jennie-O's parent company, Hormel Foods Corporation, says the Stearns County Public Health Department informed the Melrose plant on Monday that a worker had tested positive for TB.

The spokesman says Austin-based Hormel Corporation has identified nine people who work in the same department as the worker who tested positive. A letter with the names of those employees was sent to Stearns County Public Health on Wednesday.

Jennie-O will continue working with the health department. Hormel says TB is a health issue and is not a risk to food safety.The illness is spread through the air when a sick person coughs, sneezes or speaks. Symptoms include coughing, chest pain, fever and fatigue.