CYCLOSPORA

Cyclospora

Cyclospora

Cyclospora cayetanensis is a food borne disease that was discovered in 1979 and is still not well understood. It is likely that scientists will discover new food-borne pathogens as laboratory techniques improve. An individual can get infected from Cyclospora due to contaminated water, as well as various types of fresh produce treated with contaminated water.

These protozoans, ingested by humans in environmentally resistant forms called oocysts, can cause gastrointestinal symptoms, weight loss, and fatigue. Both water-borne and food-borne transmissions are possible. One outbreak, widely reported in the popular media, seemed to trace at least one source of the infection to sprayed Central American raspberries. Fecal contamination of water by previously infected individuals, which then serves as a drinking or irrigation source, leads to new infections. Preliminary investigations have linked Cyclospora infection to gardening and working with soil.

The symptoms of this disease include: Watery diarrhea, loss of appetite, weight loss, bloating, increased flatus, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, muscle aches, low-grade fever, and fatigue (Roberts, 2006, 16).

In January 2005 President George W. Bush announced a national Food Safety Initiative (FSI) designed to reduce the incidence of food-borne illness to the greatest extent possible. The report, Food Safety from Farm to Table: A National Food Safety Initiative, while recognizing that our food supply is among the safest in the world, acknowledges that changes in consumers and their lifestyles, the food system itself, and pathogens require a change in methods to protect the food supply. It addresses food safety hazards that present the greatest risk, how to make the best of limited resources, how to increase coordination between public and private organizations, and how to improve coordination within and between government agencies. Areas of emphasis in the President's Food Safety Initiative are:

Improve inspections and expand preventive safety measures. The main activities under this ...