By Siddhi Mahatole and Christy Santhosh
July 28 (Reuters) - Michigan health officials reported 9,680 cases of cyclosporiasis on Tuesday, an increase of 427 cases from a day earlier, as the growing intestinal parasitic outbreak keeps U.S. consumers on edge about buying raw produce.
Shoppers have worried for weeks over what products are making people sick with cyclosporiasis, an intestinal disease that can cause explosive diarrhea.
An investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has linked the outbreak
to iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants sourced from privately held Taylor Farms operations in central Mexico, but authorities are still looking for other potential sources given the size of the outbreak.
Michigan's health department has reported 160 hospitalizations as of July 23, but no deaths.
Cyclosporiasis, caused by the cyclospora parasite, can be contracted by consuming food — typically raw fruits and vegetables — or water contaminated with feces. There are currently 4,173 laboratory-confirmed domestic cases of cyclosporiasis in the U.S., while the CDC is aware of more than 7,400 additional cases across at least 41 states.
Investigators have not determined how many cases are tied to Taylor Farms-supplied iceberg lettuce. The company complained to White House and FDA officials about the government's inspection process earlier this month, a source familiar with the meeting said on Monday.
In a letter to federal health officials, Democratic U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on Tuesday questioned whether recent Trump administration cuts to food-safety surveillance and laboratory funding had weakened the government's ability to detect and respond to the nationwide outbreak.
FOODNET CUTS
Gillibrand, of New York, said the cuts had created "dangerous blind spots" in disease surveillance and asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA to respond by July 31 on their plans to contain the current outbreak and monitor future ones.
Gillibrand also raised concerns about cuts to FoodNet, a foodborne illness surveillance program run by the CDC, the FDA, U.S. Department of Agriculture and 10 state health departments, which stopped tracking six of eight pathogens, including Cyclospora, in July 2025.
Cyclospora is a nationally notifiable pathogen and most states collect data and share it routinely with the CDC in its disease surveillance system, said Gwen Biggerstaff, deputy director of the CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases, during a recent press briefing.
The goal of FoodNet is to look at trends over time, and the network does not replace national surveillance, Biggerstaff said. Participating states continue to report cyclospora on a national basis and the data is the same for this outbreak as with previous ones, she said.
Some large retailers and restaurants are shunning produce from other growers in central Mexico over fears of broader contamination, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on Monday.
(Reporting by Christy Santhosh and Siddhi Mahatole in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Caroline Humer)
