TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – As the cyclosporiasis outbreak continues and health officials remind people to thoroughly wash fresh produce, one local wildlife rehabilitation center has a different message for anyone hesitant about the fruits and vegetables in their fridge: Don\u2019t throw them away \u2014 donate them.<\/p>\n
Nature\u2019s Nursery, which is currently caring for nearly 660 animals, relies on fresh produce as an important part of its daily feeding routine. <\/p>\n
Garden Manager Jerri Fink said donations of peppers, kale, lettuce, cucumber, zucchini, melons and berries are all welcome.<\/p>\n
According to the FDA<\/a>, the cyclospora parasite only infects humans, not animals \u2014 meaning produce that may give people pause can still safely feed wildlife in rehabilitation.<\/p>\n \u201cOur guys are not that picky, a bug here or there, a worm here or there, is kind of like ketchup or a side on a steak to them,\u201d Fink said.<\/p>\n Health officials continue to remind the public that washing produce remains important during the outbreak.<\/p>\n Nature\u2019s Nursery accepts produce donations any day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. If you can\u2019t make it during those hours, the center suggests freezing the items first and dropping them off at your convenience.<\/p>\n Latest Local News<\/a> | First Alert Weather<\/a> | Crime<\/a> | National<\/a> | 13abc Originals<\/a><\/p>\n Copyright 2026 WTVG. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – As the cyclosporiasis outbreak continues and health officials remind people to thoroughly wash fresh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":760522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-760521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/760522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}