Texas State health officials are investigating about a dozen cases of salmonella over the past several weeks in Dallam and Hartley counties in the northwest corner of the Texas Panhandle.

The director of the infection prevention program at Dalhart’s Coon Memorial Hospital says the number of cases prompted the alert to state authorities. They’re contacting people who have or have had the illness to try to find a common thread.

Salmonella illness is spread by eating contaminated foods, drinking contaminated water or having hand-to-mouth contact with an infected person or animal. It usually develops 12 to 72 hours after infection and can cause diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps. The illness lasts around four to seven days.

Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm, is the nation’s leading law firm representing victims of Salmonella outbreaks. The Salmonella lawyers of Marler Clark have represented thousands of victims of Salmonella and other foodborne illness outbreaks and have recovered over $600 million for clients.  Marler Clark is the only law firm in the nation with a practice focused exclusively on foodborne illness litigation.  Our Salmonella lawyers have litigated Salmonella cases stemming from outbreaks traced to a variety of foods, such as cantaloupe, tomatoes, ground turkey, salami, sprouts, cereal, peanut butter, and food served in restaurants.  The law firm has brought Salmonella lawsuits against such companies as Cargill, ConAgra, Peanut Corporation of America, Sheetz, Taco Bell, Subway and Wal-Mart.