According to the Ohio Department of Education, the sample of chicken tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes, a common pathogenic bacteria found in the environment that is killed in the cooking process.
Food contaminated by listeria can cause listerosis, an uncommon but potentially fatal disease.
Healthy people rarely contract the disease, which has symptoms of high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness and nausea. The chicken came from Gold Kist processing plants in Alabama and was stored in warehouses in Columbus and Dayton. The contaminated sample was found in a warehouse in Dayton. Some chicken from the lot where the contaminated sample was pulled had been sent to nine school districts, but the schools were alerted and none of the chicken was consumed, said Deborah Abbott, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Agriculture. Ohio officials have notified the U.S. Department of Agriculture and plan to conduct more tests on the chicken and at the Dayton warehouse.