Four workers from the Maine Department of Agriculture were treated by doctors when they became ill after investigating animal-cruelty allegations at a Turner egg farm last week, state officials said Friday.

“After the raid, four employees felt burning in the nose and eyes, coughing, tightness of breath, and they sought medical attention for ammonia exposure,” said David Farmer, deputy chief of staff for Gov. John Baldacci. All four missed some work time but none was out for more than a day and a half, Farmer said. “There are no apparent lingering effects.”

State Sen. John Nutting, D-Leeds, confirmed workers were treated for an irritation to their lungs after spending time inside the barns at Maine Contract Farming and Quality Egg of New England last week.

Adam Fisher, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Labor, said he could not comment on whether the incident was being investigated. Fisher said state law prohibited the department from discussing ongoing investigations.

The Labor Department’s Workplace Safety and Health Division investigates when state workers are injured or become ill on the job, according to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

An OSHA representative in Augusta said the federal agency had no jurisdiction over state workers.

Fisher also said Department of Labor technicians monitored air conditions at the farm this Thursday when Department of Agriculture workers returned to continue their animal cruelty investigation. Despite finding safe levels of ammonia in the air, Fisher said one Department of Agriculture investigator became sick from the odor Thursday During a live chat online at www.sunjournal.com on Friday, Nutting wrote that the health and safety of workers at the farm was a problem in the 1990s, but lately there had been few worker health-related complaints.

It remained unclear Friday whether a state or federal investigation into the working conditions at the farm was under way.

Farmer said two Maine State Police troopers who also entered the farm buildings last week for brief periods did not become ill or miss any work after the raid.

“Different people have different tolerances for this type of thing,” Farmer said. He said the important thing from the governor’s perspective was that all of the state employees appeared to have recovered from the exposure.

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