FDA Closes Largest Cyclospora Outbreak on Record: 12,883 Sick, Parasite Found in Taylor Farms Mexico Wastewater
WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 — The Food and Drug Administration on Friday closed its investigation of the largest Cyclospora outbreak ever recorded in the United States, with 12,883 people sick, according to LexBlog's review of the closing files. For the first time, the FDA said where it found the parasite: in a tank of wastewater leaving the Taylor Farms de Mexico processing plant, and in a drainage ditch at a grower that supplied it. The recalled product was iceberg lettuce.
The same afternoon, the FDA ended a jalapeño Salmonella outbreak at 488 sick, with a grower traced to a Mexican state and no route of contamination identified. The day before, the CDC closed a hepatitis A outbreak in frozen blood clams at 37 sick and 30 hospitalized, with the importer never named. The three closed files cover 13,408 illnesses, and none states how the pathogen got into the food.
Taylor Farms says no lettuce tested positive for Cyclospora, while standing behind the decision to recall. The CDC's published methods note that an outbreak link is built from epidemiology, traceback and food or environmental testing, and that officials can act on strong epidemiological evidence alone when cases converge on a common point in the supply chain.
Source: LexBlog, Oct. 3 weekend wrap-up and Oct. 4 follow-up on the Taylor Farms response, citing FDA and CDC closing documents.
Photo: Lettuce Mini Heads — photofarmer / CC BY 2.0 (via Openverse)
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: Lettuce Mini Heads — photofarmer / CC BY 2.0 (via Openverse)
