Cyclospora outbreak pressures federal food safety response
Health officials are investigating thousands of cyclosporiasis cases as experts question whether funding cuts have slowed the federal response.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
4 min read
A multistate outbreak of cyclosporiasis has put federal food safety agencies under pressure as investigators try to identify contaminated food and limit new illnesses. CNBC reported that the episode is also testing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has pledged to change the U.S. food system and rebuild confidence in the CDC.
Kennedy said this week that the outbreak is under control and rejected criticism that agency cuts have weakened the investigation, according to CNBC. The CDC’s official count has lagged some state tallies, with nearly 4,200 cases reported by the agency while Michigan alone has counted at least 7,000 illnesses, CNBC reported.
The FDA and CDC have focused part of their inquiry on shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms, a supplier to restaurants and grocers, according to CNBC. The FDA first said a sample from the company tested positive for cyclospora, then later corrected that statement and said the result was a false positive.
Donald Schaffner, chair of food science at Rutgers University, told CNBC that he had not seen that kind of reversal before and called it a serious error. A former senior FDA food official told CNBC that regulators still had reason to disclose the initial result because waiting could have exposed more people if the positive result had been confirmed.
Tracking a difficult parasite
Cyclospora is harder to trace than some other foodborne pathogens because parasites do not grow outside the human body, CNBC reported. Schaffner said testing can produce false positives because the testing process can make a sample appear to contain the parasite when it does not.
Craig Hedberg, co-director of the Minnesota Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence, told CNBC that federal funding cuts over the past year have reduced the country’s ability to respond to outbreaks like this one. Dr. Daniel Jernigan, a former director of the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, told CNBC that the CDC’s parasitic disease division lost $40 million in USAID funding after the Trump administration dismantled the agency.
Jernigan estimated that the division has lost about one-quarter of its staff, according to CNBC. HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard told CNBC that the USAID money supported international work rather than domestic foodborne disease response, and said the Trump administration’s proposed 2027 budget includes a $33 million increase for food safety activities.
The CDC’s food safety budget for the current fiscal year is $74 million, up $2 million from last year, according to the agency’s operating plan cited by CNBC. George Washington University’s Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security found that CDC food safety funding has not received a meaningful increase since 2014, CNBC reported.
Communication and state capacity
The FDA’s food center has a $1.17 billion budget this year, about 17% of the agency’s roughly $7 billion in total program-level spending, CNBC reported. The former senior FDA official said foodborne illness outbreak staff were spared from broad layoffs, but the agency’s main press office was cut, reducing communications expertise.
Ellen Shumaker of North Carolina State University’s Safe Plates program told CNBC that FDA recall messages need to be clearer and should tell consumers what actions to take. Frank Yiannas, a former FDA deputy commissioner for food policy and response, told CNBC that the July 16 public notice came after illnesses began May 17, suggesting a slower response than expected.
State health departments are also dealing with fewer federal resources. The Congressional Research Service found in May that the Trump administration ended $5.78 billion in CDC grants to states, CNBC reported.
A Kentucky public health spokesperson told CNBC that the state team handling foodborne illness interviews has seen staffing fall 30% to 50% because of reduced federal grant funds. Ohio’s health department told CNBC it requested CDC help and expected several Epidemic Intelligence Service officers to assist with the cyclospora investigation.
The CDC has received reports of more than 4,000 laboratory-confirmed cases and is aware of more than 7,400 additional cases, many in Michigan and Ohio, that have not yet been lab-confirmed, CNBC reported. The FDA also reported a separate new outbreak Wednesday involving dozens of people and an unidentified product, adding another inquiry for health agencies.
This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.