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Cleaning out my INBOX

As I was cleaning out my email inbox, I noticed this one from my Graduate Secretary. I think it's the most random email she's ever sent. Enjoy--but watch out for the salmonella-carrying geese!

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An article from today's *(Oct 14, I think)* "Daily Bulletin" on-line

http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/

Apple temptation carries a danger

David Morris, a PhD student in the geography department, reports that "My office has one of the best views on campus -- I am on the second floor of ES2 overlooking the park along Laurel Creek. As almost everyone knows on campus, this park is almost always full of ducks and Canada geese. They particularly like to forage around under a large apple tree across from ES2.

"Today, however, a disturbance among the ducks alerted me to two women and a toddler collecting large bags of windfallen apples. They were also eating these apples without washing them. While I am neither an epidemiologist nor an avian biologist, as an ecologist, I am aware that ducks and geese in urban parklands are common carriers of salmonella (see, for example, Fallacara, et al. 2001)."

He warns of the potential health hazard of eating windfall apples "without thoroughly washing them".

posted by Steph @ 5:14 PM