2:44 p.m.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Three deaths associated with a national salmonella outbreak occurred in Virginia and Minnesota, health officials confirmed Tuesday.
Two adults in Virginia had salmonella when they died, though it's not clear that the illness is what killed them, said Michelle Peregoy, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Health. She did not release details about the two people.
Earlier, Minnesota health officials said an elderly woman in that state had the illness at the time of her death.
Health officials are urging nursing homes, hospitals, schools, universities and restaurants to toss out specific containers of peanut butter linked to a salmonella outbreak in 43 states and possibly to the deaths of three people.
The recalled peanut butter - distributed by King Nut Companies of Solon, Ohio - was supplied only through food service providers and was not sold directly to consumers. King Nut challenged the finding, saying it could not be the source of the nationwide outbreak since it distributes to only seven states.
The outbreak has sickened more than 400 people and Minnesota health officials announced Monday they had found a match between samples from a King Nut container and the strains of salmonella bacteria making people sick across the country.
The peanut butter King Nut distributed was manufactured by Peanut Corporation of America of Lynchburg, Va. In an e-mail earlier Monday, President Stewart Parnell said the company was working with federal authorities.
State health officials in Minnesota said most of its 30 confirmed cases there were linked to the King Nut brand, but they and health officials in other states are working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to figure out if there were other sources.
"The question is, who else distributes this product from Peanut Corporation? We're trying to find out where else this product would have gone," Doug Schultz, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Health, said Tuesday.
The CDC said the outbreak may have contributed to the three deaths.
Minnesota health officials, who are coordinating their investigation with the CDC, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other states, said one of the three was a nursing home resident in her 70s who died after contracting the illness. But an epidemiologist with the state Health Department, Stephanie Meyer, said it wasn't clear whether the illness or underlying health problems caused the woman's death.
Minnesota health and agriculture officials said last week they had found salmonella bacteria in a 5-pound package of King Nut peanut butter at a different nursing facility. Officials tested the bacteria over the weekend and found a genetic match with the bacterial strain that has led to 30 illnesses in Minnesota and others across the country.
King Nut Companies on Sunday asked its customers to stop using peanut butter under its King Nut and Parnell's Pride brands with a lot code that begins with the numeral "8."
However, company president and chief executive Martin Kanan argued that King Nut could not be the sole source of the nationwide salmonella outbreak because the company distributes only to Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, Arizona, Idaho and New Hampshire. Those states account for 141 of the 410 salmonella cases confirmed as of Monday, according to the CDC.
All the illnesses began between Sept. 15 and Jan. 7, but most of the people became sick after Oct. 1.
The recalled peanut butter was distributed to establishments such as care facilities, hospitals, schools, universities and restaurants. No other King Nut products have been voluntarily recalled.
The peanut butter contamination comes almost two years after ConAgra recalled its Peter Pan brand peanut butter, which was eventually linked to at least 625 salmonella cases in 47 states.
CDC officials say the bacteria in the current outbreak has been genetically fingerprinted as the Typhimurium type, which is among the most common sources of salmonella food poisoning.
---
Associated Press writers Martiga Lohn in St. Paul, Thomas J. Sheeran in Cleveland and Mike Stobbe in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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11:50 a.m.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Three deaths associated with a national salmonella outbreak occurred in Virginia and Minnesota, health officials confirmed Tuesday.
Two adults in Virginia had salmonella when they died, though it's not clear that the illness is what killed them, said Michelle Peregoy, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Health. She did not release details about the two people.
Earlier, Minnesota health officials said an elderly woman in that state had the illness at the time of her death.
Health officials are urging nursing homes, hospitals, schools, universities and restaurants to toss out specific containers of peanut butter linked to a salmonella outbreak in 43 states. Seventeen cases have been reported in Virginia.
The recalled peanut butter - distributed by King Nut Companies of Solon, Ohio - was supplied only through food service providers and was not sold directly to consumers. King Nut challenged the finding, saying it could not be the source of the nationwide outbreak since it distributes to only seven states.
The outbreak has sickened more than 400 people and Minnesota health officials announced Monday they had found a match between samples from a King Nut container and the strains of salmonella bacteria making people sick across the country.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the outbreak may have contributed to the three deaths.
Minnesota health officials, who are coordinating their investigation with the CDC, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other states, said one of the three was a nursing home resident in her 70s who died after contracting the illness. But an epidemiologist with the state Health Department, Stephanie Meyer, said it wasn't clear whether the illness or underlying health problems caused the woman's death.
Minnesota health and agriculture officials said last week they had found salmonella bacteria in a 5-pound package of King Nut peanut butter at a different nursing facility. Officials tested the bacteria over the weekend and found a genetic match with the bacterial strain that has led to 30 illnesses in Minnesota and others across the country.
King Nut Companies on Sunday asked its customers to stop using peanut butter under its King Nut and Parnell's Pride brands with a lot code that begins with the numeral "8."
However, company president and chief executive Martin Kanan argued that King Nut could not be the source of the nationwide salmonella outbreak because the company distributes only to Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, Arizona, Idaho and New Hampshire. No other King Nut products have been voluntarily recalled.
The peanut butter King Nut distributed was manufactured by Peanut Corporation of America of Lynchburg, Va. In an e-mail earlier Monday, President Stewart Parnell said the company was working with federal authorities.
The peanut butter was distributed to establishments such as care facilities, hospitals, schools, universities and restaurants. King Nut says it was not distributed for retail sale to consumers.
The CDC on Monday raised the number of confirmed cases to 410, from 399 as of Friday, and Mississippi became the 43rd state to report a case. All the illnesses began between Sept. 15 and Jan. 7, but most of the people became sick after Oct. 1.
Kanan held out the possibility that the contamination came from another source, since the salmonella was found in an open container.
"That means there's a possibility of cross-contamination, somebody could have been cutting a piece of chicken and then stuck the knife into the peanut butter for a peanut butter sandwich," he said. "There have been no tests that have come back positive on a closed container."
The peanut butter contamination comes almost two years after ConAgra recalled its Peter Pan brand peanut butter, which was eventually linked to at least 625 salmonella cases in 47 states.
CDC officials say the bacteria in the current outbreak has been genetically fingerprinted as the Typhimurium type, which is among the most common sources of salmonella food poisoning.
---
Associated Press writers Martiga Lohn in St. Paul, Thomas J. Sheeran in Cleveland and Mike Stobbe in Atlanta contributed to this report.
---
On the Net:
FDA: http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/kingnut01-09.html
King Nut: http://www.kingnut.com/site.cfm/news.cfm
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10:55 a.m.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Three deaths associated with a national salmonella outbreak occurred in Virginia and Minnesota, health officials confirmed Tuesday.
Two adults in Virginia had salmonella when they died, though it's not clear that the illness is what killed them, said Michelle Peregoy, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Health. She did not release details about the two people.
Earlier, Minnesota health officials said an elderly woman in that state had the illness at the time of her death.
Health officials are urging nursing homes, hospitals, schools, universities and restaurants to toss out specific containers of peanut butter linked to a salmonella outbreak in 43 states and possibly to the deaths of three people.
The recalled peanut butter - distributed by King Nut Companies of Solon, Ohio - was supplied only through food service providers and was not sold directly to consumers. King Nut challenged the finding, saying it could not be the source of the nationwide outbreak since it distributes to only seven states.
The outbreak has sickened more than 400 people and Minnesota health officials announced Monday they had found a match between samples from a King Nut container and the strains of salmonella bacteria making people sick across the country.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the outbreak may have contributed to the three deaths.
Minnesota health officials, who are coordinating their investigation with the CDC, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other states, said one of the three was a nursing home resident in her 70s who died after contracting the illness. But an epidemiologist with the state Health Department, Stephanie Meyer, said it wasn't clear whether the illness or underlying health problems caused the woman's death.
Minnesota health and agriculture officials said last week they had found salmonella bacteria in a 5-pound package of King Nut peanut butter at a different nursing facility. Officials tested the bacteria over the weekend and found a genetic match with the bacterial strain that has led to 30 illnesses in Minnesota and others across the country.
King Nut Companies on Sunday asked its customers to stop using peanut butter under its King Nut and Parnell's Pride brands with a lot code that begins with the numeral "8."
However, company president and chief executive Martin Kanan argued that King Nut could not be the source of the nationwide salmonella outbreak because the company distributes only to Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, Arizona, Idaho and New Hampshire. No other King Nut products have been voluntarily recalled.
The peanut butter King Nut distributed was manufactured by Peanut Corporation of America, a Virginia company. In an e-mail earlier Monday, President Stewart Parnell said the company was working with federal authorities.
The peanut butter was distributed to establishments such as care facilities, hospitals, schools, universities and restaurants. King Nut says it was not distributed for retail sale to consumers.
The CDC on Monday raised the number of confirmed cases to 410, from 399 as of Friday, and Mississippi became the 43rd state to report a case. All the illnesses began between Sept. 15 and Jan. 7, but most of the people became sick after Oct. 1.
Kanan held out the possibility that the contamination came from another source, since the salmonella was found in an open container.
"That means there's a possibility of cross-contamination, somebody could have been cutting a piece of chicken and then stuck the knife into the peanut butter for a peanut butter sandwich," he said. "There have been no tests that have come back positive on a closed container."
The peanut butter contamination comes almost two years after ConAgra recalled its Peter Pan brand peanut butter, which was eventually linked to at least 625 salmonella cases in 47 states.
CDC officials say the bacteria in the current outbreak has been genetically fingerprinted as the Typhimurium type, which is among the most common sources of salmonella food poisoning.
---
Associated Press writers Martiga Lohn in St. Paul, Thomas J. Sheeran in Cleveland and Mike Stobbe in Atlanta contributed to this report.
---
On the Net:
FDA: http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/kingnut01-09.html
King Nut: http://www.kingnut.com/site.cfm/news.cfm
--------
Updated: Tuesday 5:33 a.m.
Health officials are urging nursing homes, hospitals, schools and restaurants to toss out containers of peanut butter amid a salmonella outbreak that's sickened more than 400 people.
The recalled peanut butter is distributed by King Nut Companies of Solon, Ohio. It was supplied only through food service providers and wasn't sold directly to consumers.
Minnesota health officials announced Monday they had found a match between samples from a King Nut container and the strains of salmonella bacteria making people sick across the country.
King Nut is questioning the finding. The company says it only distributes to seven states and can't be the source of the outbreak.
Cases have been reported in 43 states.
----------------------
10:32 p.m.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Peanut butter is the culprit in the food poisoning that has struck more than 400 people in 43 states, Minnesota health officials said Monday in making a conclusive link through genetic testing.
Federal officials said the outbreak may have contributed to three deaths.
The Minnesota officials warned that the outbreak may not have ended, and warned nursing homes and other institutions that may still be using the peanut butter - sold under the King Nut or Parnell's Pride brands - to toss it.
Lab tests found salmonella in an open 5-pound container of King Nut peanut butter from a Minnesota nursing home where the illness occurred.
The state Public Health Laboratory completed testing Monday that showed a genetic match with the bacterial strain tied to 30 illnesses in Minnesota and others across the country.
"This certainly is one pretty definitive piece of evidence in this case," said Heidi Kassenborg, who heads the Agriculture Department's dairy and food division.
One elderly woman at a different nursing home in northern Minnesota died after contracting salmonella, although epidemiologist Stephanie Meyer of the state Health Department said it wasn't clear whether the illness or underlying health problems caused the death.
The woman was in her 70s.
The Centers for Disease Control, in a release later Monday, said the salmonella poisonings may have contributed to three deaths.
The CDC didn't detail the deaths or where they occurred, and spokesman Dave Daigle said the agency would have no other details Monday.
Of the Minnesota cases, 17 were tied to institutions including nursing homes, an elementary school, a college and a university.
Meyer said three others were exposed to another sick person in their household.
Epidemiologists are still tracing how the other 10 cases got salmonella - complicated by the lag between illnesses that happened in November and December and the investigation weeks later.
Eleven of the people sickened in Minnesota ended up in the hospital, she said.
The outbreak was concentrated in the northern part of the state.
The peanut butter was distributed only through food service providers - to care facilities, hospitals, schools, universities and restaurants - and not sold directly to consumers.
King Nut Companies of Solon, Ohio, on Sunday asked its customers to stop distributing all peanut butter under its King Nut and Parnell's Pride brands with a lot code that begins with the numeral "8."
Company president and chief executive Martin Kanan said Monday that Minnesota's findings validated that decision.
"We did not want to wait around for the results," he said.
Still, Kanan held out the possibility that the contamination came from another source, since the salmonella was found in an open container.
"That means there's a possibility of cross-contamination, somebody could have been cutting a piece of chicken and then stuck the knife into the peanut butter for a peanut butter sandwich," he said.
"There have been no tests that have come back positive on a closed container."
The Minnesota lab took 13 samples from different parts of the container.
Four of the samples - from different parts of the container - tested positive for salmonella.
Doug Schultz, a Minnesota Health Department spokesman, said if the sample was cross-contaminated from another source, lab tests would be expected
to show positive results from near the top of the container only.
But he said lab workers also aim to test unopened containers of the peanut butter and are trying to get such samples from the distributor.
Schultz said all the Minnesota cases consumed peanut butter, although the brand couldn't be confirmed in every case.
Minnesota officials took the lead because foodborne investigations typically start at the state level.
Minnesota officials were coordinating their investigation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other states.
King Nut's peanut butter was manufactured by Lynchburg, Va.-based Peanut Corporation of America. In an e-mail earlier Monday, President Stewart Parnell said the company was working with federal authorities.
The CDC on Monday raised the number of confirmed cases to 410, from 399 as of Friday, and Mississippi became the 43rd state to report a case.
All the illnesses began between Sept. 15 and Jan. 7, but most of the people became sick after Oct. 1.
The peanut butter contamination comes almost two years after ConAgra recalled its Peter Pan brand peanut butter, which was eventually linked to at least 625 salmonella cases in 47 states.
CDC officials say the bacteria in the current outbreak has been genetically fingerprinted as the Typhimurium type, which is among the most common sources of salmonella food poisoning.
4:54 p.m.
MINNEAPOLIS(AP) - The salmonella bacteria that has sickened nearly 400 people in Minnesota and 41 other states has been conclusively linked to peanut butter, Minnesota health officials announced Monday.
State health and agriculture officials said last week they had found salmonella bacteria in a 5-pound package of King Nut peanut butter at a nursing facility in Minnesota. Officials tested the bacteria over the weekend and found a genetic match with the bacterial strain that has led to 30 illnesses in Minnesota and others across the country.
"The commonality among all of our patients was that they ate peanut butter," said Doug Schultz, a spokesman with the Minnesota Department of Health. While the brand of peanut butter couldn't be confirmed in every case, the majority of patients consumed the same brand, he said Monday.
Minnesota officials took the lead because foodborne investigations typically start at the state level. Minnesota officials were coordinating their investigation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other states.
Minnesota health officials planned a news conference later Monday afternoon to release further details.
On Sunday, distributor King Nut Cos. of Solon, Ohio, recalled two brands of peanut butter after the salmonella finding.
King Nut's peanut butter was manufactured by Peanut Corporation of America, a Lynchburg, Virginia company. In an e-mail earlier Monday, President Stewart Parnell said the company was working with federal authorities.
The peanut butter was distributed to establishments such as care facilities, hospitals, schools, universities and restaurants. King Nut says it was not distributed for retail sale to consumers.
As of Friday, 399 cases had been confirmed nationally, with about one in five victims hospitalized. All the illnesses began between Sept. 3 and Dec. 29, but most of the people became sick after Oct. 1.
The peanut butter contamination comes almost two years after ConAgra recalled its Peter Pan brand peanut butter, which was eventually linked to at least 625 salmonella cases in 47 states.
CDC officials say the bacteria in the current outbreak has been genetically fingerprinted as the Typhimurium type, which is among the most common sources of salmonella food poisoning.
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4:15 p.m.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - State officials in Minnesota say the salmonella bacteria that has sickened nearly 400 people in Minnesota and 41 other states has been genetically linked to peanut butter.
Officials said Monday that lab tests have confirmed a match between the salmonella outbreak and the bacteria found in the peanut butter.
Last week, state health and agriculture officials announced that salmonella bacteria had been found in a 5-pound package of King Nut peanut butter at a nursing facility in Minnesota.
On Sunday, King Nut Companies of Solon, Ohio, recalled two brands of peanut butter after the salmonella finding. The companies claims the peanut butter was made by a Lynchburg company.
The Minnesota Department of Health planned a news conference Monday afternoon to release further details.
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