CDC cuts FoodNet active surveillance to two pathogens, dropping campylobacter and listeria

Effective July 1, 2025, the CDC's Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network reduced its mandatory active surveillance to Salmonella and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli only. The six pathogens eliminated from required active tracking were campylobacter, listeria, Shigella, Vibrio, Yersinia, and Cyclospora. CDC officials described the change as resource prioritization, but provided no public notice before the cutover, no named responsible official, and no projected impact assessment. Campylobacter caused approximately 1.9 million U.S. illnesses in 2019, making it the most common foodborne bacterial pathogen FoodNet had tracked. Listeria kills roughly 260 Americans per year and poses the highest mortality risk to pregnant women and immunocompromised patients. Michael Osterholm at the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy said the change removed "the foundation of our food safety system." Without FoodNet's population-level denominator data for these six pathogens, PulseNet's laboratory cluster alerts lose the context needed to confirm whether a cluster constitutes an outbreak requiring a federal response.