Since May, more than 11,000 cases of cyclosporiasis—an illness caused by the parasite Cyclospora—have been reported across 41 U.S. states, according to reporting cited by CBS News. The outbreaks have prompted public concern about federal food-safety capacity and monitoring.
CBS News links the scale of the current illnesses to changes made during the Trump administration affecting agencies responsible for food safety and disease surveillance. The report says staffing at the FDA and CDC has been drastically reduced. It also describes actions including disbanding a national advisory committee focused on preventing microbial contamination in food, narrowing an early-warning surveillance program for specific pathogens, and delaying a proposed rule that would require tracing contaminants from the point of production through the supply chain.
Experts quoted in the coverage characterize the summer outbreak as a “national wake-up call.” The reporting focuses on how reduced resources and slower implementation of traceability measures could affect the government’s ability to detect, respond to, and prevent outbreaks tied to contaminated food.
