Answers Sought for Restaurant Illness

County health officials were trying to determine what sickened hundreds of people who ate at a Castleton, Ind., area Olive Garden restaurant.

The restaurant will be closed until at least Monday while health officials investigate. The county health department fielded calls from people who said they ate at the restaurant from Dec. 9 to last Thursday, then experienced nausea, diarrhea, fever and vomiting, health department spokesman John Althart told The Indianapolis Star. Three were hospitalized.

We believe it’s a food-borne illness, Althardt said. We are hoping that by taking this action, it will give us more of an opportunity to do more investigating and to break the cycle of infection.

County inspectors found no health code violations, but continued complaints of illness prompted the closure Friday, health officials said.

Olive Garden’s corporate headquarters in Orlando, Fla., said in a statement the company was cooperating with health officials. The company said it thought the outbreak may be tied to employees who recently had flu-like symptoms.

The statement said the illnesses were not related to the recent E.coli outbreak at several Taco Bells in the Northeast.