Melrose turkey plant worker tests positive for tuberculosis

The Associated Press
November 21, 2013 at 12:19PM

MELROSE, Minn. – 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 Corp., says the Stearns County Public Health Department informed the Melrose plant on Monday that a worker had tested positive for TB.

Hormel says that TB is a health issue and is not a risk to food safety.

The spokesman says Austin-based Hormel has identified nine people who work in the same department as candidates for being 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.

The illness is spread through the air when a sick person coughs, sneezes or speaks. Symptoms include coughing, chest pain, fever and fatigue.

Associated Press

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