Petting zoos and E. coli. Here we go again.
The Will County Health Department (Joliet, Illinois) is investigating five laboratory-confirmed cases of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) that may be connected to visits to Bengtson’s Pumpkin Farm in Homer Glen. Health officials are working to determine how the infections occurred and whether there is a
On October 21, 2026, the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment declared the norovirus outbreak at Bentwood Elementary School in south Overland Park, Kansas over, with a final count of 97 people sick: 95 students and staff inside the school and two family members outside it, two of them confirmed by laboratory testing. The
As of October 21, 2026, the Virginia Department of Health counts 55 people in 19 states sick with SalmonellaTelelkebir after eating raw oysters harvested from the Little Wicomico River in Northumberland County, Virginia, up from 53 in 18 states a week earlier, and the most recent illness began October 6. CDC, which is
As of October 21, 2026, 13 people in nine states are sick with E. coli O26:H11 traced to Graziers raw milk cheese made by Sierra Nevada Cheese Company of Willows, California; 8 are hospitalized, 3 children have hemolytic uremic syndrome, and no one has died. The company recalled all Graziers raw milk cheese, nationwide
As of October 21, 2026, about 85 students and staff at Bentwood Elementary School in Overland Park, Kansas, part of the Olathe Public Schools, have been sick with norovirus over the past week, according to the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment, which confirmed the outbreak to KCTV5. Two cases were confirmed by
As of October 14, 2026, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has a new fact sheet on Cyclospora cayetanensis which, as Food Safety News reports it, says the parasite “is not reliably eliminated by washing or commonly used chlorine-based sanitizers,” and that the dependable protection is keeping it out of the water used to
Three federal pages carry the running account of what is making Americans sick. As of October 15, 2026, FDA’s Investigations of Foodborne Illness Outbreaks table carries fifteen active investigations with 14,168 people sick, 652 hospitalized where FDA publishes a number, and two dead. CDC’s Current Outbreaks page says the agency is coordinating thirty multistate investigations:
As of October 15, 2026, FDA has posted its Executive Incident Summary Abstract for the SalmonellaEnteritidis outbreak linked to Midwest Poultry Services shell eggs, which sickened 134 people in 18 states and hospitalized 34 between November 21, 2025 and August 12, 2026. No one died. CDC closed the investigation on September 3, and the
As of October 16, 2026, Family Farmstead Dairy, LLC of Worcester, New York is recalling one lot of its Family Farmstead Raw Mild Cheddar Cheese, sold in 8-ounce packages to grocers in New York and New Jersey, because a Maryland laboratory found Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, the O157:H7 type, in two samples. The lot
All summer I kept a running count of the 2026 Cyclospora season from CDC, FDA and the fifty state health departments. A month on from my last straight count, three questions arrive most often: where does it stand, which illnesses are tied to Taylor Farms, and are people still getting sick. Here are the answers
Wilson County, Tennessee emergency officials are investigating a suspected foodborne illness outbreak at the Walmart Distribution Center in Lebanon, about 30 miles east of Nashville. Workers began falling ill late Thursday night, October 8, and into Friday morning, October 9, with nausea and vomiting, according to WKRN.
Early reports, citing the Wilson County Emergency