USA – Cyclospora – Cilantro (Coriander) – Faeces – Toilet Paper

NOTE: Revision to this Import Alert dated July 28, 2015 updates the guidance section to provide clarification to SENASICA and COFEPRIS� processes. Changes are noted and bracketed by three asterisks (***).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state public health officials have identified annually recurring outbreaks (in 2012, 2013, and 2014) of cyclosporiasis in the United States which have been associated with fresh cilantro from the state of Puebla, Mexico. There is currently (in July 2015) another ongoing outbreak of cyclosporiasis in the United States in which both the Texas Department of State Health Services and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection have identified cilantro from the Mexican state of Puebla as a suspect vehicle with respect to separate illness clusters.

Cyclospora cayetanensis is a human-specific protozoan parasite that causes a prolonged and severe diarrheal illness known as cyclosporiasis. In order to become infectious, the organism requires a period outside of its host. Illnesses are known to be seasonal and the parasite is not known to be endemic to the United States. Cyclosporiasis occurs in many countries, but it seems to be most common in tropical and subtropical regions. People become infected with C. cayetanensis by ingesting sporulated oocysts, which are the infective form of the parasite. This most commonly occurs when food or water contaminated with feces is consumed. An infected person sheds unsporulated (immature, non-infective) C. cayetanenis oocysts in the feces.

After finding human waste and toilet paper in Mexican cilantro fields that have been linked to U.S. Cyclospora outbreaks for three straight years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has placed an import alert on cilantro from the Puebla region of Mexico. The alert, which covers fresh in tact and chopped cilantro, allows U.S. officials to detain without physical inspection any cilantro shipments from the Puebla region from April 1 through August 31

Eight people in Wisconsin contracted Cyclospora infections after eating cilantro imported from Mexico that was grown in fields contaminated with human waste. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has put a ban on summer imports of cilantro form the implicated area, says the   illnesses are part of a two-state outbreak of parasitic infections that includes more than 200 cases in Texas.