Washington DC - President Donald Trump's administration shuttered a series of research projects which were key to the US' fight against the cyclospora outbreak that has infected thousands across the country.

Congress defunded two of the only three projects doing research into cyclospora earlier this year, mere months before infected lettuce and other food products triggered a nation-wide food crisis.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will move the third and final project from Maryland to Iowa in fall. According to anonymous sources and documents cited by Politico, none of those currently working on the project have agreed to relocate.

The reports come weeks after the US recorded its first few deaths as the result of the ongoing outbreak, which has stemmed from an assortment contaminated food products.

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 17,180 laboratory-confirmed cases were detected between May 1 and August 24. They resulted in 922 hospitalizations and two deaths across 48 states, plus the District of Columbia.

While the USDA is blaming Congress for canceling funding for two of the three projects, it is believed the department's relocation push has played a significant role.

"We know so little, and I think that's been very frustrating to consumers," said Kalmia Kniel, a professor researching cyclospora at the University of Delaware.

"No one can work very fast," Kniel – who formerly worked at the USDA's Beltsville Agricultural Research Center – said. "We don't have the models, we don't have these surrogates like we would want to have them."

"We're basically not allowed to continue any research on that beyond trying to preserve the samples we already have from previous outbreaks," a USDA employee told Politico.

"We see this as an enormous opportunity, this current outbreak, to have really a lot of samples that could help us understand these outbreaks better."