Fecal matter found on food at a Huron Township resort in Ohio only strengthens health officials’ suspicions that norovirus is to blame for sickening dozens of people in recent weeks.

Bob England, Erie County’s environmental health director, told the Sandusky Register, “Some of the lunch meat, the ham and the turkey, was contaminated with fecal bacteria.”

Tests on the resort’s food showed significant amounts of fecal bacteria contamination, England said, specifically on the ham and turkey, and lesser amounts on some cheese. Also, of the people who fell ill at the resort, nearly all of them ate salad. The health department sent several containers of lettuce to state health officials for testing, but for some reason the state didn’t analyze those samples, England said.

England said that while he believes the initial outbreak was connected with food contamination — at least two employees at the resort tested positive for norovirus — later cases of the virus may have come from sick people passing on the highly contagious ailment.

England also said the resort’s staff have gone to great lengths to clean the facility in the wake of the illnesses.