Missouri cyclospora cases go up as outbreak linked to alleged supplier from St. Louis E. coli scare 44%
By St. Louis Public Radio22%
7/18/2026, 6:53:36 PM
Topics: Disease Outbreaks, Foodborne Illnesses
BS Summary: This article contains 22 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Biased Writer Voice, and Confirmation Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 28.7% saturation with 138 hits. Analysis detected 1,170 faulty-reasoning hits from 480 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 47.4% and a BS Rank of 44% (10,081 of 17,854 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 56.50% of the article peer group.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has now identified more than 80 people who have tested positive for a diarrhea-causing parasite that has sickened thousands, and a supplier linked to the nationwide outbreak is the same producer that has been linked to a rash of E. coli cases in St.
Louis in 2024.
Missouri health officials have seen a significant increase in cyclospora cases in the past two weeks, but numbers are still below those of other states, Nathan Koffarnus, assistant bureau chief for the agency's communicable disease bureau, said during a press call Thursday.
Federal officials have linked cyclospora to lettuce served at Taco Bell locations in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.
The Associated Press cited a federal official who claims the produce company Taylor Farms supplied the lettuce.
St.
Louis Public Radio has not confirmed that report.
Taylor Farms on Friday afternoon announced it was pulling all lettuce from Central Mexico from the U.S. market.
"While the FDA traceback is indicating a specific independent farm that represents less than 1% of the U.S.'s iceberg lettuce supply as the potential source of the outbreak, we have removed all iceberg lettuce from the region indefinitely," a statement from the company read.
Lawsuits filed in federal and St.
Louis County courts claim that Taylor Farms supplied the produce that caused a St.
Louis E. coli outbreak that sickened 115 people who attended a catered school event in 2024.
The producer has denied that allegation.
Bill Marler, a lawyer who represents St.
Louis-area plaintiffs who sued Taylor Farms after that outbreak, said it's rare for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Food and Drug Administration not to name the source of the outbreak.
"[Health officials] say it's one processor who processed iceberg lettuce from Mexico, but they don't name the processor, and that's pretty unusual," Marler said.
"I don't really have a good explanation of why they didn't name it."
Cases like this shouldn't happen, Marler said, but Taylor Farms is a large supplier and has been tied to other national food poisoning outbreaks.
"They're just a big player, and so they supply a lot of people, and these outbreaks happen," he said.
Cyclospora infections can cause watery diarrhea, nausea and dehydration.
The parasite rarely causes fever or vomiting, and most people infected can recover without antibiotics.
Koffarnus said he doesn't know if the cases in Missouri are connected to the outbreaks in other states.
"Do we have cases that haven't left the state of Missouri?
Do they have anything in common with the cases in Michigan?
At this point in time, we just don't know," Koffarnus said.
Taylor Farms representatives did not respond to St.
Louis Public Radio's request for comment.
Copyright 2026 St.
Louis Public Radio
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