SWIMMER’S ITCH

QUESTION: IS IT OKAY TO FEED THE DUCKS and GEESE?

ANSWER? DO NOT FEED THE DUCKS OR THE GEESE!!!

Three good reasons for not feeding the birds include:

1. It may propagate swimmer’s itch in the area where the birds are being fed

2. It may make the birds dependent on humans for survival

3. Feeding the birds may stimulate fecal deposits at the feeding

QUESTION: WHAT IS SWIMMER’S ITCH?

ANSWER: Swimmers itch or schistosome cercarial dermatitis is a skin reaction that certain people have to the entry of a larval stage of certain flatworms into the epidermal layer of the skin. The causative agent for swimmer’s itch is the larval, free-living and aquatic stage of a group of flatworms that are called schistosomes. Most of species that cause swimmer’s itch use bird hosts for the adult parasite and aquatic snails as intermediate hosts for the larval stages. There have been reports of swimmers itch at Diamond Lake. You can do your part by not feeding the ducks and geese.