As we've reported, the CDC unit that tracks outbreaks has been working with less than half its normal staff. To help handle the current outbreak, the agency tells NPR it has called back about 30 furloughed workers, including 10 who work in the foodborne division.

"This is the kind of thing that you've got to get information into consumers' hands," says Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

And she says that since the communications staffs of both CDC and USDA are working at reduced capacity, it's a concern. "The agency's ability to push out the information is a lot more limited than it would be otherwise."

CDC has been monitoring this outbreak since July. It's likely that this outbreak is connected to a prior cluster of illnesses in 2012, also linked to raw chicken produced by Foster Farms.

Foster Farms has issued a statement on its website stating that it is working with the USDA and the CDC to address salmonella associated with raw poultry reportedly linked to three of its facilities in California. The statement says that no recall is in effect and that "products are safe to consume if properly handled and fully cooked."

So, how did the USDA investigators begin narrowing in on Foster Farms?

Well, they received a call from CDC officials in July explaining that they were monitoring a cluster of illnesses from Salmonella Heidelberg on the West Coast — and epidemiologists were finding a link to chicken.

Acting on this information, says David Goldman of the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, "we decided to do some intensive sampling [for salmonella] in four different Foster Farms plants."

What they found is that three of the Foster Farms plants were producing products that were contaminated with Salmonella Heidelberg. And the chicken "contained the outbreak strains [of salmonella] that the CDC had identified to us as causing the illnesses," says Goldman.

You can tell if you have a package of chicken produced in one of these facilities by looking for one of these codes on the packaging:

P6137
P6137A
P7632

As always, the USDA is reminding consumers to be careful when handling raw poultry, to use clean surfaces and not let raw chicken contact other food, and to cook to an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.

Copyright 2013 NPR.

Salmonella HeidelbergSalmonella Heidelberg

Amid Big Salmonella Outbreak, USDA Says It's On The Job