Sorry to post this right before Thanksgiving dinner, but here is something to think about the next time you eat after handling an anole: approximately 30% of anoles in Japan carry salmonella, twice the level in feral goats and more than ten times greater than that found in public toilets. Read the complete (freely available) study here.
Thom Sanger is an Assistant Professor at Loyola University in Chicago. His lab specializes on understanding the developmental bases of Anolis lizard diversity.
Latest posts by Thomas Sanger (see all)
- Short Faces, Two Faces, No Faces: Lizards Heads Are Susceptible to Embryonic Thermal Stress - December 15, 2021
- The Super Sticky Super Power of Lizards: a New Outreach Activity for Grade-Schoolers - April 9, 2018
- Updates on the Development of Anolis as a “Model Clade” of Integrative Analyses of Anatomical Evolution - September 4, 2017
John Rubin
No more anole sushi for me!
Skip Lazell
I even cook my iguana. Better safe than Salmonelled….
Rich Glor
Many captive anoles in the US have salmonella. The anoles in my colony have tested positive when screened by veterinarians.
Thomas Sanger
Absolute presence or absence of salmonella is not the critical question here. The question is what percentage of captive anoles have salmonella compared to campus toilets and locally abundant feral animals. It seems like this is an undergrad. project just waiting to happen
Rich Glor
You should try posting an ad for undergraduates keen to sample toilets and feral animals, I think you’ll definitely get some interest:)