The US Food and Drug Administration has closed its investigation of a summertime Cyclospora outbreak linked to recalled lettuce from Mexico. Inspections identified growers and a processing facility that supplied the lettuce, and two environmental samples contained the parasite. The findings add a new step to an investigation that followed months of infections and a recall.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the agency overseeing food and medicines, has completed its investigation of a Cyclospora outbreak linked to lettuce during the summer. Cyclospora is an intestinal parasite. The investigation connected infections between July and September with lettuce from central Mexico that Taylor Farms de Mexico had recalled.[1], [2]
Inspectors worked with Mexican authorities at multiple iceberg-lettuce growers and a processing facility. They identified farms and the facility that had supplied the recalled lettuce. Water, soil, sediment and lettuce were sampled; two samples tested positive for Cyclospora. The findings came almost three months after Mexico's Health Ministry said its earlier tests had found no parasite.[1]
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks public-health threats, declared the outbreak over on September 11. According to El País, US agency figures list 12,883 cases, 570 hospitalizations and two deaths during the year. The latest update listed 21 affected states, compared with four at an earlier stage. Early accounts linked shredded Taylor Farms lettuce sold at restaurants including Taco Bell to a regional outbreak concentrated in the US Midwest.[1]
