{"id":13621,"date":"2026-07-22T14:06:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T09:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=13621"},"modified":"2026-07-22T14:06:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T09:06:17","slug":"rfk-jr-says-cyclosporiasis-outbreak-is-under-control-as-mexico-casts-doubt-on-link-to-taylor-farms-facility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=13621","title":{"rendered":"RFK Jr. says cyclosporiasis outbreak is \u2018under control\u2019 as Mexico casts doubt on link to Taylor Farms facility"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"anchor-0b46f2\" class=\"body-graf\">Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday the cyclosporiasis outbreak was \u201cunder control\u201d even as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/fda-still-investigating-taylor-farms-cyclosporiasis-outbreak-rcna588385\" target=\"_blank\">health authorities continue to search for answers<\/a> about why thousands of people in the U.S. have gotten sick. <\/p>\n<p><button class=\"styles_subscriptionCTA__LOUeY\" id=\"subscriptionCTA\" type=\"button\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,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\" alt=\"NBC News Icon\" class=\"styles_icon__wRwWv\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"styles_textWrapper__vxvko\">\n<p class=\"styles_text__daaVB styles_textLarge__qlzwu\">Subscribe to read this story ad-free<\/p>\n<p class=\"styles_text__daaVB\">Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/rockcms\/2026-01\/arrow-f55fa5.svg\" alt=\"arrow\" class=\"styles_arrow__tnruW\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><\/button><\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-0f16fe\" class=\"body-graf\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/food\/outbreaks-foodborne-illness\/investigation-5-state-outbreak-cyclospora-illnesses-iceberg-lettuce-july-2026\" target=\"_blank\">Food and Drug Administration<\/a> has linked the outbreak, which mainly causes severe diarrhea, to shredded iceberg lettuce from a Taylor Farms facility in central Mexico. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-6d42fb\" class=\"body-graf\">But Mexico\u2019s health secretary, David Kershenobich, said Tuesday at a news conference that the country\u2019s own investigation had not found evidence that the outbreak originated there.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-33a789\" class=\"body-graf\">The parasite in question, cyclospora, is notoriously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/cyclospora-outbreak-foods-2026-how-health-officials-track-parasite-rcna587354\" target=\"_blank\">difficult to trace<\/a> \u2014 scientists must use highly sensitive tests to detect it in food. People can also get sick weeks after having eaten contaminated products, so by the time health officials become aware of an outbreak, all of a product worth testing may have been eaten or discarded. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-f18040\" class=\"body-graf\">Scientists rely heavily on information about who developed symptoms and what they ate to trace an outbreak to its source. A positive test result is not necessarily needed to determine the culprit.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-5f77d9\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cWe have done extensive forensics, epidemiological forensics, and we\u2019ve identified the source of the outbreak,\u201d Kennedy said Tuesday. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-7a8d1f\" class=\"body-graf\">FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas was less definitive in his description of the outbreak, telling Fox News on Tuesday that the data \u201cstrongly supports\u201d Taylor Farms as the responsible party.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-61f0d2\" class=\"body-graf\">Diamantas said Monday on a media call that cases linked to the outbreak were identified as recently as last week, \u201cwhich means it\u2019s imperative for us to take action to ensure contaminated product is not making its way to the market.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-f228a0\" class=\"body-graf\">The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, which has counted 6,571 cases in the state as of Tuesday, said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/mdhhs\/keep-mi-healthy\/infectious-diseases\/infectious-disease-outbreaks\" target=\"_blank\">on its website<\/a> that other food items cannot be ruled out as potential sources of the outbreak, adding that \u201cno specific type of produce, grower, or supplier has been identified as the source.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-678bdb\" class=\"body-graf\">Taylor Farms voluntarily recalled all iceberg lettuce grown and processed in central Mexico on Friday out of what it described as \u201can abundance of caution.\u201d It has also stopped sourcing iceberg lettuce grown in central Mexico for the rest of the growing season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-8ba0bd\" class=\"body-graf\">It supplied the recalled product to Taco Bell locations in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia, as well as selected Walmart locations across the country under the Marketside brand.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-9efca0\" class=\"body-graf\">To date, no samples from the Taylor Farms facility in Mexico have tested positive for cyclospora \u2014 though the FDA reported one result over the weekend that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/fda-says-taylor-farms-lettuce-sample-tested-cyclospora-produced-false-rcna588303\" target=\"_blank\">turned out to be a false positive<\/a>. <\/p>\n<section class=\"inline-video inline-video--in-body inline-video--vertical-video\" data-testid=\"inline-video\" id=\"anchor-1d1ff9\">\n<div class=\"inline-video__background\">\n<div class=\"inline-video__player\">\n<div class=\"styles_gridStackWrapper__Z_AMc styles_verticalVideoContainer__AndXW vertical-video-container inline-article-vertical-video paused\" tabindex=\"-1\" data-testid=\"gamma-video-player\">\n<div class=\"info-layer styles_infoLayer__3khlf\">\n<p><span class=\"styles_caret__Aqe2z icon icon-play\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-testid=\"caret\"\/><span data-testid=\"card-duration\">01:30<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"styles_controlContainer__XmNB0 styles_inlineVideo__unIwH\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"Video controls\">\n<p class=\"styles_title__0GjQf styles_inlineVideoInitial__c2yet\">What to know about Cyclospora after Taylor Farms false positive<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"styles_gradientOverlay__6My_d\"\/><\/p>\n<p><span aria-label=\"Elapsed time 00:00\">00:00<\/span><span aria-label=\"Remaining time 00:00\">00:00<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p id=\"anchor-6ef543\" class=\"body-graf\">An FDA official said the agency was quick to announce the result because the sample was not part of the voluntary recall, so it seemed to have urgent public health implications. However, quality checks by the FDA\u2019s laboratory personnel showed that the positive result was an error.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-1b61d7\" class=\"body-graf\">Keith Schneider, a food safety professor at the University of Florida, said the FDA is likely to be testing more than just lettuce at this stage of the investigation.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-bc18a4\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cThey may be testing irrigation water. They may be testing soil samples. They may be testing workers associated with that single field or those several fields that would have supplied that product to those locations at that time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-8b8b1a\" class=\"body-graf\">Kennedy responded Tuesday to concerns that federal agencies were not conducting enough cyclospora surveillance after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/cdc-quietly-scaled-back-surveillance-program-foodborne-illnesses-rcna227089\" target=\"_blank\">having scaled back a program called FoodNet<\/a>. A year ago, the CDC told 10 states that they no longer had to actively monitor for cyclospora through FoodNet, which helps states understand how common foodborne illnesses are outside of outbreak settings. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-59cc0c\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cThose criticisms are invalid. We\u2019ve had no cuts in our surveillance program,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cWe did cuts in the FoodNet program, but they were for redundant surveillance, and all the states will tell you that we\u2019re still doing forensics. We\u2019re still doing surveillance in all the states.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-8673c3\" class=\"body-graf\">Several state health departments told NBC News they continue to report cyclosporiasis cases to the CDC that are picked up by local health departments or labs. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-fd30d3\" class=\"body-graf\">But food safety experts worry that, without active surveillance, many cases will be missed.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-4e24bd\" class=\"endmark body-graf\">\u201cWhat we\u2019ve been doing is pulling pieces out of the puzzle, and it\u2019s going to make it really hard for us to figure out what the cause of this outbreak is,\u201d said Barbara Kowalcyk, director of the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security at George Washington University. \u201cIt\u2019s going to make it hard for us to see the context and how this fits in with trends over time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday the cyclosporiasis outbreak was \u201cunder control\u201d even as health authorities continue to search for answers about why thousands of people in the U.S. have gotten sick. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. The Food and Drug Administration has&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_nbcnews-fp-1200-630,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-07\/260721-Iceberg-lettuce-ch-1554-c92d7c.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}