Senator Jon Ossoff Calls Out CDC’s Reduced Cyclospora Tracking Amid Nationwide Outbreak

A surge of cyclosporiasis cases—characterized by explosive, weeks-long diarrhea—has been confirmed or deemed likely in dozens of states. In response, Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) sent a letter to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. demanding an explanation for the Trump administration’s 2023 decision to make reporting of the parasite *Cyclospora cayetanensis* optional within the CDC’s FoodNet surveillance program. Ossoff warned that the “foolish and self-indulgent demolition of critical public health programs puts Americans at risk.”

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FoodNet, a collaborative network of the CDC, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and ten states, historically required mandatory reporting of eight food-borne pathogens, including Cyclospora. In July 2023, the administration altered the program so that data collection for all pathogens except Salmonella and E. coli became optional. The change was implemented without public announcement, according to NBC News.

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The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, did not immediately comment on the policy shift. The CDC’s website justifies the downgrade by stating that “other surveillance systems monitor for infection with FoodNet pathogens” and that the revisions “allow FoodNet staff to prioritize core activities, while maintaining both the infrastructure and quality FoodNet represents.”

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Food-safety professionals argue the optional reporting weakened early-outbreak detection. One unnamed expert told NBC News that years of work to improve food safety are “just going away.” Clinical professor Dr. Shpiner of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, writing in a Guardian opinion piece, said the looser monitoring “made it easier for the federal government to miss the outbreak” and “weakened a system designed to alert us that ‘something unusual is happening.’”

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• “And now a cyclosporiasis outbreak sweeps the nation,” — Jon Ossoff, Senator

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• “Your foolish and self-indulgent demolition of critical public health programs puts Americans at risk.” — Jon Ossoff, Senator

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• “Changes to the reporting requirements and associated activities allow FoodNet staff to prioritize core activities, while maintaining both the infrastructure and quality FoodNet represents,” — CDC website statement

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• “A lot of the work that I and many, many, many, many other people have put into improving food safety over the past 20 or 30 years is just going away,” — Unnamed food-safety expert

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• “Shpiner, a clinical professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, wrote in a Guardian opinion piece last week that the looser monitoring at FoodNet made it easier for the federal government to miss the outbreak.” — Dr. Shpiner, Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCLA

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