HUNTINGTON -- A massive egg recall plaguing the Midwest states to California has crept into stores in West Virginia, according to reports from the West Virginia Department of Agriculture.

Tainted eggs were reported to have been found in Foodland stores in Scott Depot and Eleanor and a SuperValu warehouse in Milton. Eggs at all locations were removed from store shelves and destroyed.

"Inspectors from the WVDA's Regulatory and Environmental Affairs Division have been on the lookout for recalled products since we first became aware of this massive, national recall," said Gus R. Douglass, state commissioner of agriculture. "The FDA told us Monday that they didn't believe any recalled product had been shipped to West Virginia. That information proved to be wrong."

Local grocery store managers were proceeding cautiously after hearing the news.

"Nobody has told us specifically that we've been affected by the recall," said Blake Smith, a store manager at Foodland in Westmoreland. "I'm going to start making some calls and see if we need to start pulling product from the shelves."

Foodland office worker Sarah Hay said she had fielded more than 20 phone calls in 10 minutes Thursday inquiring about whether the tainted eggs were on their store shelves.

Department of Agriculture spokesman Buddy Davidson stressed that he had no direct knowledge of tainted eggs at retail stores in Huntington; however, inspectors are set to visit a food warehouse in Huntington on Friday. He also added that it is less important what store the eggs came from and more important to focus on plant and date stamping on the products.

"This is not exclusive and we don't know if this is all there is as far as recalled products go. It will be a continuing project," he said. "We'd advise people to visit our web site and look at the codes."

Consumers should look for plant number P1860, Julian dates 099-230; plant number P1663, Julian dates 137-230; plant numbers P1026, P1413 and P1946, Julian dates 136-225. The Julian date is the numerical day of the year the eggs were packaged. Those codes are based on the FDA's belief that Hillandale was the only recalled brand sold in West Virginia. A full list of recalled brands and code numbers are available at the FDA web site.

"We're concerned about consumer 'recall fatigue,'" Douglass said. "Our main message to consumers today is "Look and Cook." Check your refrigerator for recalled product and cook your eggs thoroughly to be on the safe side.

If you are concerned about cooking the eggs, local health officials urge caution.

"I can advise people if they think they have tainted eggs, just throw them away," said Elizabeth Ayers, public health educator at the Cabell-Huntington Health Department. "We'll keep up with what's going on nationally and if it ever were to become a serious problem, we would handle it the best we could."

More than 550 million shell eggs, believed to have originated from Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms, both in Iowa, have been linked to as many as 1,300 cases of salmonella poisoning nationwide. No salmonella cases related to the recall have been reported in Kentucky or West Virginia, and officials in Ohio say there hasn't been a spike in cases as would be expected in the event of an outbreak. No tainted eggs were shipped to Kentucky and very few were distributed in West Virginia and Ohio.

National Video