MELROSE — 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., said the Stearns County Public Health Department informed the Melrose plant on Monday that a worker had tested positive for TB.

The spokesman said Austin-based Hormel 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.