You know, I believe as strongly as anyone else that the Canada Geese are pretty darn dirty and I'm turned off by there crap all over the place in the summer, but are they really to blame for all these factory farms with their disgusting practices of pumping their animals full of antibiotics and dumping their shit? This article makes it seem like the geese are the problem and not the factory farmers. Don't shoot the messenger!
Canada goose a germ courier?
Non-migratory flock tied to E. coli
Theory ties guano shed to superbugs
They may be lovely to look at. But Canada geese are generally considered pests, walking feces factories that take over parks and ponds, leaving a slick of guano in their wake.
A new study suggests the problem may be more than cosmetic. Canada geese can pick up and shed antibiotic-resistant pathogens, potentially making them an effective winged delivery network for so-called superbugs.
The research, to be published in the June issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, highlights a way of spreading antibiotic-resistant organisms hitherto unstudied.
"If you have a multi-drug resistant salmonella being shed by a horse in Georgia and a goose happens to eat in that pasture and then fly up to Kentucky or Ontario, then maybe you can get quick dissemination of these bugs," said Dr. Scott Weese, a veterinarian who specializes in antimicrobial resistance at the Ontario Veterinary College.
The paper reports on the work of U.S. researchers who tested four different flocks of Canada geese to see if they could acquire and shed antibiotic-resistant E. coli. Sampling was done by collecting droppings and swabbing bird butts.
The non-migratory flocks from Georgia and North Carolina had habitats that were recreational (a park), agricultural and industrial.
One North Carolina flock loitered around a swine waste lagoon. Some pig farms, like other livestock rearing operations, use high levels of antibiotics to tamp down diseases. When samples from that flock were run through lab tests, many of the isolates were found to harbour antibiotic-resistant strains of E. coli.
Lead author Dr. Dana Cole did not respond to several requests for an interview.
The study proves the geese pose a theoretical risk but does not confirm whether they are part of a chain of transmission leading to human infection, says Dr. Todd Weber, an antimicrobial resistance official at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
"Are they contaminating fields? I don't know," Weber said from Atlanta.
CANADIAN PRESS
Canada goose a germ courier?
Non-migratory flock tied to E. coli
Theory ties guano shed to superbugs
They may be lovely to look at. But Canada geese are generally considered pests, walking feces factories that take over parks and ponds, leaving a slick of guano in their wake.
A new study suggests the problem may be more than cosmetic. Canada geese can pick up and shed antibiotic-resistant pathogens, potentially making them an effective winged delivery network for so-called superbugs.
The research, to be published in the June issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, highlights a way of spreading antibiotic-resistant organisms hitherto unstudied.
"If you have a multi-drug resistant salmonella being shed by a horse in Georgia and a goose happens to eat in that pasture and then fly up to Kentucky or Ontario, then maybe you can get quick dissemination of these bugs," said Dr. Scott Weese, a veterinarian who specializes in antimicrobial resistance at the Ontario Veterinary College.
The paper reports on the work of U.S. researchers who tested four different flocks of Canada geese to see if they could acquire and shed antibiotic-resistant E. coli. Sampling was done by collecting droppings and swabbing bird butts.
The non-migratory flocks from Georgia and North Carolina had habitats that were recreational (a park), agricultural and industrial.
One North Carolina flock loitered around a swine waste lagoon. Some pig farms, like other livestock rearing operations, use high levels of antibiotics to tamp down diseases. When samples from that flock were run through lab tests, many of the isolates were found to harbour antibiotic-resistant strains of E. coli.
Lead author Dr. Dana Cole did not respond to several requests for an interview.
The study proves the geese pose a theoretical risk but does not confirm whether they are part of a chain of transmission leading to human infection, says Dr. Todd Weber, an antimicrobial resistance official at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
"Are they contaminating fields? I don't know," Weber said from Atlanta.
CANADIAN PRESS
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