Colorado may not hold the record for “Official State Whatevers,” but it’s got to come close with both a state rock and a state gemstone, two official state songs, a state insect and a state reptile, as well as the usual flower, bird, fish, tree, mammal and the like.
But Wisconsin may be on its way to something new: an official state microbe, the Lactococcus lactis. As you might have guessed, it has something to do with cheese — it’s the bacterium that changes milk into cheese.
L. lactis promoters say it highlights an important industry in the Badger State.
No argument there, but as a Coloradan, accustomed to a new Official State Something every couple of years after a grade-school class somewhere decides to lobby the legislature, I wonder what our microbe will be.
Since Colorado (as of 2006, anyway) leads the nation in beer production, the obvious candidates might be Saccharomyces cerevisiae and S. pastorianus, the two most popular varieties of brewing yeast.
But why imitate Winconsin by focusing on the economic contributions of a microbe? One that deserves more attention to is Giardia lamblia, found in nearly every mountain stream. It causes nausea and diarrhea, also known as “Chief Ouray’s Revenge.”
If it were better known, high-country hikers might be less prone to drink from those pristine-looking mountain creeks that tumble through the rocks. Fewer visitors would get ill, thereby improving the state’s reputation as a tourist destination.
But I doubt any legislator is willing to introduce a bill making G. lamblia our official state microbe, which would lead to giardiasis becoming our official state infection, and who knows what would come after that?
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