An Ashville meat company has recalled almost 546,000 pounds of ground beef because of links to illnesses from E. coli bacteria in Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts.

The U. S. Department of Agriculture said Saturday that the meat, sold by Fairbank Farms in Ashville, west of Jamestown, was linked to cases of the food-borne illness in the three New England states.

Retail stores, including Trader Joe’s, Price Chopper, Lancaster, Wild Harvest, Shaw’s, BJ’s, Ford Brothers and Giant, sold the ground beef, the agency said. Each package carried the number “EST. 492” inside the USDA inspection mark or on the nutrition label.