Yard waste may be the source of last year's blastomycosis outbreak in Merrill, according to the Lincoln County Health Department.

After studying the cases, health officials are now recommending the waste site be moved.

The investigation seems to show the blasto came from a pile of pine needles in the city's yard waste site that also provided a home for some ducks.

Epidemiologist John Pfister says the acidity of pine needles and bird droppings have shown to provide a good environment for the blasto to grow.

He also says a certain weather pattern contributed - a severe drought followed by heavy rain.

The study targeted most of the outbreak cases to the same time period, late November to early December.

That's also about the time workers disturbed and moved the pine needle pile, which Pfister says probably released the mold spores into the air.

Most of the outbreak cases were clustered within a certain area of Merrill, which also includes the yard waste site.

Pfister says the Merrill case is so unusual because typical blastomycosis patients are middle-aged men who work outside, and they're also usually reported in rural areas.

But in Merrill, there were both women and men infected.

There were quite a few younger cases, and most of them were in the city.

Merrill's Streets Supervisor tells NewsChannel 7 the City's Board of Public Works will probably discuss moving the yard waste site at its June 27 meeting, if the Chairman decides to put it on the agenda.

Click on the Related Links below for a summary of the final report. To increase the text size of each page, hold your cursor over the document, and click on the box that pops up in the lower right corner.