PARIS (Reuters) -The French farm ministry on Tuesday said it detected five likely cases of food-borne botulism, a potentially fatal disease, in central France linked to contaminated pesto sauce that had been sold at some regional market fairs.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

According to the World Health Organisation, botulism is a rare but potentially fatal disease if not diagnosed rapidly and treated with antitoxin.

KEY QUOTE(S)

"Considering the incubation time (from a few hours to a few days) and the serious nature of the disease, people who have consumed these products are called to be very vigilant and to consult a doctor in case of symptoms," the French farm ministry said.

CONTEXT

Botulism is primarily caused by consumption of improperly processed food.

The French government issued an immediate recall of the wild garlic pesto sauce, made by a small local producer, which likely caused the cases. Some samples have been sent to the Institut Pasteur for further analysis.

(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and David Evans)