CDC: Shutdown Strains Foodborne Illness Tracking

As we Tuesday, the government shutdown is pushing the nation's food safety system to its limits.

For instance, there is normally a team of eight people overseeing the critical foodborne illness tracking database . This team identifies clusters of sickness linked to potentially dangerous strains of pathogens such as E. coli or salmonella.

But with the shutdown, more than half of this staff has been sent home

"We have three people right now," says , director of the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases at the CDC.

Given that the CDC is currently monitoring about 30 clusters of foodborne illnesses around the country, which is typical at any given time, we asked Braden if he was worried about keeping up with them.