Feeders
or flowers? Researchers compare microbes
Date: March 6, 2019
Source: University of California - Davis
Summary:
A new
study is one of the first to address the potential for sugar water from
hummingbird feeders to act as a vector for avian -- or even zoonotic --
pathogens. It found that the majority of microbes growing in feeders do not
likely pose a significant health hazard to birds or humans.
Many
people set up hummingbird feeders in their yards to nurture and watch these
high-energy pollinators. But could the sugar water they provide be impacting
these tiny feathered friends?
A study
led by the University of California, Davis, is one of the first to address the
potential for sugar water from hummingbird feeders to act as a vector for avian
-- or even zoonotic -- pathogens. It found that the majority of microbes
growing in feeders do not likely pose a significant health hazard to birds or
humans.
The
research, published March 6 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B,
explored the microbial communities that dwell in sugar water from feeders and
compared them to those found in flower nectar and samples from live hummingbirds.
"Although
we found high densities of both bacteria and fungi in sugar water samples from
feeders, very few of the species found have been reported to cause disease in
hummingbirds," said community ecologist and co-author Rachel Vannette, an
assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
"However, a tiny fraction of those microbes has been associated with
disease, so we encourage everyone who provides feeders for hummingbirds to
clean their feeders on a regular basis and to avoid cleaning feeders in areas
where human food is prepared."
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