State health officials said that a staph bacteria may have sickened more than 137 people who ate an Easter buffet at Claudia Sanders Dinner House in Shelbyville.

Preliminary results from the Kentucky State Lab suggested that staphylococcus aureus might be the culprit in the food poisoning, although it’s not definitive since it was found in some stool samples and not others.

The restaurant served 3,100 people on
 aster Sunday. Ham is the chief suspect in the case, although officials are also exploring other possible contaminated food.

Claudia Sanders and her husband, Col. Harland Sanders, moved into a large white house on four acres on U.S. 60 in Shelbyville in 1959. They initially used the house as the headquarters for Kentucky Fried Chicken, but later put up a building next door for that purpose.

When the fast-food franchise was sold in the 1960s, the couple turned the building next to their home into a restaurant. Now owned by a former employee, the restaurant serves country-style food, including fried chicken.