Most of the victims are being treated at Hereford County Hospital

The bacteria was identified in a cooling tower at the company's factory in Plough Lane on Monday.

But test results released by Herefordshire Council's environmental health department on Friday confirmed the type of legionella found was "scientifically consistent" with samples taken from the patients.

Twenty-four people in the Hereford area have been affected, and one elderly man has died.

No new cases of the disease have been confirmed in the last 24 hours although nine people remain in hospital.

These results support our belief that the source of the outbreak in Hereford has been identified and eradicated Dr Mike Deakin

Andy Tector, head of environmental health and trading standards at Herefordshire Council, said exhaustive testing and re-testing of air conditioning units and cooling towers in the city had paid off.

"Today's test result is backed up by the in-depth analysis of the movements of people who have contracted the disease," said Mr Tector.

"We have all spent many hours plotting these movements in detail and we've also taken into account data such as wind speed and direction.

"The findings of this exercise, to map movements, support today's test result and points to Bulmer's as being the source of the outbreak."

Further cases

Dr Mike Deakin, Herefordshire's Director of Public Health, also welcomed the news.

"These results support our belief that the source of the outbreak in Hereford has been identified and eradicated," he said.

However, he cautioned that further cases would not be unexpected due to the incubation period of legionella.

Bulmers' general manager Willy Crawshay said he wished to express his sympathy to all concerned.

"We absolutely regret the circumstances of this outbreak and our thoughts are very much with those that are poorly and we wish them a speedy recovery," he said.