Six of the 486 known cases in the recent salmonella outbreak across the United States are from Texas, the state's health agency said Thursday.

Two of the cases were from Tarrant County and Harris, Galveston, Travis and Willacy counties each had one case, the Texas Department of State Health Services said. Details about those cases were not currently available.

This salmonella outbreak, the second in two years, was first detected in September 2008. So far, 486 cases have been reported in 43 states and six deaths were confirmed.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies are investigating the outbreak. Exposures to peanut butter and products that contain peanut butter are suspected to be the likely cause.

Max Ma, an expert from Methodist Hospital in the Texas Medical Center, ruled out a wide-spreading outbreak of the disease, saying there were just sporadic cases. The bacterium disease, whose death rate is low, was reported almost every year in the United States, he added.

Salmonella bacteria is the most common source of food poisoning in the United States, causing serious and sometimes fatal infections in children, frail or elderly people and others with weakened immune systems. People infected with it often experience fever, diarrhoea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

Source: Xinhua