The Agriculture Department says three California poultry processing facilities linked to a salmonella outbreak in raw chicken can stay open, for now. 
 
 In a statement Thursday, the USDA said Foster Farms, which owns the facilities in Fresno and Livingston, Calif., has made "immediate substantive changes to their slaughter and processing to allow for continued operations." 
 
 The department threatened earlier this week to shut down the plants if Foster Farms did not prove that it had made enough changes. Sampling by the USDA in September showed that raw chicken processed by those facilities included strains of salmonella that were linked to the outbreak that has sickened 278 people in 17 states. 
 
 USDA said government inspectors will monitor the company's improvements and "continue intensified sampling" of Foster Farms meat for the next three months. 
 
 In a Monday letter to Foster Farms, USDA said the positive samples coupled with the illnesses suggest that the sanitary conditions at the facility "could pose a serious ongoing threat to public health." The company had until Thursday to respond. 
 
 The outbreak, which has been going on since March, has had a high rate of hospitalizations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 42 percent of victims were hospitalized, about double the normal rate, and it is resistant to many antibiotics, making it more dangerous. 
 
 In a statement Thursday, Foster Farms President Ron Foster said the company has been working for two months to add increased food safety controls. 
 
 "This officially validates our progress, but we are not stopping here," Foster said of the company's agreement with the USDA to keep the plants open. 
 
 The CDC says the outbreak is ongoing and some illnesses began as recently as two weeks ago. The majority of illnesses have been in California but people in 17 states have been infected, from Texas to Michigan to North Carolina. 
 
 Salmonella can contaminate meat during slaughter and processing and is especially common in raw chicken. The infections can be avoided by proper handling and cooking of raw poultry. 
 
 The pathogen causes diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within a few days of eating a contaminated product and can be life-threatening to those with weakened immune systems. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mcjalonick ||||| For years, Foster Farms wanted consumers to know its poultry was farm fresh, all natural and, most important, safe to eat. 
 
 But the ongoing salmonella outbreak linked to three of its central California processing plants is threatening to tarnish the company's image and raising hard questions about gaps in the nation's food safety laws. 
 
 Considered among the industry's leading producers with state-of-the-art facilities, Foster Farms is an example of how salmonella has become an increasingly potent threat to consumer safety. 
 
 Foster Farms: An article in the Oct. 11 Section A about a salmonella outbreak linked to poultry from Foster Farms said that Livingston, Calif., had a population of 250,000. The city's population is about 13,500. 
 
 "This is not your grandmother's salmonella anymore," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "It's a new salmonella, much more potent, and modified with the use of antibiotics on the farm." 
 
 At least 278 people reportedly have been sickened in 18 states since March by a strain of Salmonella Heidelberg that has shown signs of resistance to antibiotics. That may explain why rates of hospitalization are nearly double that of typical salmonella outbreaks. 
 
 That prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture this week to threaten Foster Farms with closure of its two plants in Fresno and another in Livingston, Calif., where the company is headquartered. 
 
 That threat was lifted Thursday after Foster Farms met a deadline to show plans to improve conditions in the three problem plants. The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service did not mandate a recall of chicken from those facilities. It deemed the company's poultry safe to eat as long as it's cooked to a minimum of 165 degrees Fahrenheit. 
 
 Still, Foster Farms faces a challenge restoring faith in its products. 
 
 In a letter to the company that's now circulating on the Internet, the USDA admonished the nation's 10th-largest poultry producer for unsanitary conditions at those plants and cited a dozen instances this year in which fecal material was found on carcasses. 
 
 "Your establishment has failed to demonstrate that it has adequate controls in place to address salmonella in your poultry products," the letter said. 
 
 Kroger Co., the nation's largest grocery chain, has already recalled chicken from the three Foster Farms facilities tied to the outbreak. 
 
 The chicken in question can be identified in supermarkets with USDA marks of inspection P6137, P6137A or P7632. 
 
 Officials at Foster Farms have not granted interviews, but in a written statement released late Wednesday, President and Chief Executive Ron Foster apologized for the illnesses and pledged to take steps to ensure the safety of its chicken. 
 
 The family-owned company had otherwise been considered a stalwart in the nation's $45-billion chicken industry. 
 
 "We have a 75-year history for excellence because of our commitment to continuous advancement in food safety," Foster said in his prepared statement. "We are putting every resource we have toward the continued safety of our fresh chicken." 
 
 Some who track the poultry industry agreed, saying Foster Farms had put in place stringent food safety measures. 
 
 "The company's reputation up until lately has been spotless," said Thomas E. Elam, president of farming consulting company FarmEcon in Carmel, Ind. "They've had an incredibly good safety record. They have been a really innovative company, jumping on top of the natural, eco-friendly, California themes."
– The three California processing plants linked to the salmonella outbreak that has sickened nearly 300 people in 18 states will be allowed to stay open, the AP reports. USDA inspectors will conduct "intensified samplings" at the Foster Farms facilities for the next three months, but they're satisfied for now that the company has fixed its problems. The feds aren't recalling any chicken, either. They say the meat safe to eat as long as it's cooked to 165 degrees. That hasn't stopped retailers from taking the stuff off shelves, however, and Foster Farms will likely have a tough road ahead getting back in consumers' good graces, the Los Angeles Times reports. The company has a strong reputation, but the outbreak speaks to salmonella's evolving threat. "This is not your grandmother's salmonella anymore," says one expert. "It's a new salmonella, much more potent, and modified with the use of antibiotics on the farm." This particular strain has proven resistant to antibiotics.