Michigan IDs bagged salad kits as possible Cyclospora source

Over 5,100 possible cases across 34 states under CDC investigation

Michigan state health officials narrowed in on bagged, prewashed salad kits as a possible culprit in the rapidly expanding Cyclospora outbreak, marking the strongest lead yet in a multistate investigation.

Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan’s chief medical executive, said the state’s review of cases pointed to lettuce as a common factor. “The early signals are telling us that lettuce does seem to be implicated,” Bagdasarian said.

Taco Bell said Tuesday it had voluntarily and temporarily removed limited fresh ingredients at select restaurants but stressed that public health officials have not confirmed a link to its food or any specific ingredient, supplier or retailer.

“It takes a lot to recover from that much diarrhea,” said Suzi Pasquinzo, a 47-year-old Michigan mother of four who developed symptoms days after eating at Taco Bell. Pasquinzo said she missed two days of work at a new job and her niece’s graduation party while recovering from the illness.

Donald Prater, the Food and Drug Administration’s acting deputy commissioner for food, said lettuce is one of multiple produce items under investigation.

The outbreak has grown rapidly. Michigan alone has reported more than 3,300 cases as of Tuesday, more than double the number from Friday, according to state health officials. The CDC said there are more than 5,100 possible cases under investigation across 34 states, with more than 140 hospitalizations.

Lettuce presents a particular challenge for investigators because the same supplier can serve restaurants and supermarkets, and suppliers often handle lettuce from various farms, making it difficult to trace a single source. The Cyclospora parasite, which infects the intestines and causes watery diarrhea, nausea and stomach cramps, typically takes up to two weeks for symptoms to develop, complicating efforts to identify common foods.

Bagdasarian said the state health department is pulling staff off other projects to assist the outbreak response. She said federal funding cuts over the past year have trickled down to the state level, resulting in layoffs and lost funding for well-established programs.

“Public health is doing far more than ever before with far fewer resources in 2026,” Bagdasarian said.

The CDC stopped routinely reporting data for Cyclospora and several other pathogens last July under a federal-state surveillance partnership known as FoodNet. Gwen Biggerstaff, deputy director of the CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, said the shift did not affect national surveillance and that the program is designed to examine trends over time to inform policy rather than to track acute outbreaks. The program includes 10 participating sites but does not cover some of the hardest-hit states, including Michigan.