In 2010, almost 2000 people became ill due to a nationwide outbreak of salmonella.1 Public health officials raced to discover the cause of the outbreak, ultimately recalling over 550 million eggs that had been shipped to fourteen states.2 Genome sequencing, a relatively new technology at that time, played an important role in determining the pathogen causing illnesses, size of the outbreak, confirming the egg production sites involved, and linking individual illnesses to specific egg processors.3 The egg producers were ultimately prosecuted for selling tainted food products.4  

 Over the past two decades, the use of genome sequencing of pathogens to inform outbreak investigations—known as pathogen genomic surveillance or PGS—has become a standard component of public health practice. The Public Health Law Center has prepared a review of relevant federal and state laws that may be implicated when Health Departments are considering whether to share PGS data with external parties. The resource also raises key practical considerations for health departments and their legal counsel. 

 Pathogen genomic surveillance is the systematic and ongoing collection, sequencing, and analysis of the genetic material of pathogens, such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi.5 The genomes of these organisms are made up of unique DNA or RNA sequences, which are composed of chemical building blocks known as nucleotide bases.6 Through genome sequencing, scientists can determine the order of all, or most, of the nucleotides in the genome.7 By examining the sequence data at a community level, health departments can detect outbreaks, better understand them, and learn more about the pathogens that are causing the illness.8 PGS covers many different types of data sources including clinical patient samples, environmental sources (like wastewater), food sources, and animal hosts.9   

 While advances in genome sequencing technologies have transformed communicable disease surveillance, this technology also raises novel legal questions that health departments must carefully navigate when deciding whether to share PGS data with external parties. This includes considering re-identification risks, applicable privacy and confidentiality laws, and open records obligations.10 Since these factors are highly context-dependent, health departments must engage in thoughtful, case-by-case assessments that balance the public health value of PGS data sharing with the need to protect individual privacy. And because the science in this area has outpaced developments in law and policy, health departments must often resolve these questions using legal frameworks that are outdated or ill-fitting to the situation at hand. 

 The Center is here to assist health departments navigating these challenges through the development of online resources, the provision of legal technical assistance, and by coordinating efforts of public health professionals across the country. Reach out to us at PHLC.PHI@mitchellhamline.edu. 

1 Christopher Walljasper, Cracks in the System: Eggs in Nationwide 2010 Egg Recall Had Quality Grade, Investigate Midwest (July 31, 2013), https://investigatemidwest.org/2013/07/31/cracks-in-the-system-eggs-in-nationwide-2010-egg-recall-had-quality-grade/ [https://perma.cc/G88E-AC5K].

2 Recall Expands to More Than Half a Billion Eggs, MPR News (Aug. 20, 2010, 6:54 PM), https://www.mprnews.org/story/2010/08/20/recalled-eggs.

3 See Examples of How FDA Has Used Whole Genome Sequencing of Foodborne Pathogens for Regulatory Purposes, U.S. Food & Drug Admin (Fed. 2, 2023), https://www.fda.gov/food/whole-genome-sequencing-wgs-program/examples-how-fda-has-used-whole-genome-sequencing-foodborne-pathogens-regulatory-purposes#determine [https://perma.cc/7M8V-WFXP].

4 Press Release, U.S. Dep't of Justice, Quality Egg Company, Owner and Top Executive Sentenced in Connection with Distribution of Adulterated Eggs (Apr. 13, 2015), https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/quality-egg-company-owner-and-top-executive-sentenced-connection-distribution-adulterated.

5 Conceptual Foundations of Pathogen Genomics, Harvard Medical Sch., https://tinyurl.com/ywepv6cy [https://perma.cc/C7GC-AMBM].

6 What is Genomic Sequencing?, U.S. Ctr. for Disease Control & Prevention (March 4, 2024), https://www.cdc.gov/advanced-molecular-detection/about/what-is-genomic-sequencing.html [https://perma.cc/AT8D-ZSGV].

7 Id.

8 See Accelerating the Use of Pathogen Genomics and Metagenomics in Public Health: Proceedings of a Workshop, Nat’l Academies of Scis., Eng’g, and Med. (Jun. 13, 2025), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK615631/ [https://perma.cc/NH5N-PX4H].

9 Pathogen Detection, NAT’L LIBRARY OF MEDICINE (Undated) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pathogens/. [https://perma.cc/9LE3-HEE5].

10 See Lingqiao Song et al., Addressing Privacy Concerns in Sharing Viral Sequences and Minimum Contextual Data in a Public Repository During the COVID-19 Pandemic, 12 Frontiers in Genetics (2022), https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2021.716541/full [https://perma.cc/J9G7-FHM6].