We have a state bird. We have a state dance. Now, lawmakers have proposed a state microbe.

MADISON, Wis. (CIVIC MEDIA) – Wisconsin could have an official state microbe under a bill under consideration at the Capitol. 

The polka is our official state dance, and the robin is our state bird. The state does not have an official microbe. A new bill would change that, but it’s been proposed at least twice before. 

“Wisconsin has a microbial economy,” said Jo Handelsman, Director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and a plant pathologist at UW-Madison. “Growth of alfalfa, digestion of hay by cows, beer, sauerkraut, and bread are all products of microbial processes. But the most impressive microbial process, we all know in the life of Wisconsin, is cheese production.” 

Handelsman testified Wednesday before an Assembly Committee on State Affairs, pushing for lawmakers to make bacterium Lactococcus lactis the Wisconsin state microbe. It’s the most widely used bacterium in cheesemaking, Handelsman says, and it’s responsible for cheese such as cheddar, Camembert, Roquefort… and Colby, which was developed in Wisconsin and which lawmakers have previously and unsuccessfully tried to make the official state cheese. 

Wisconsin doesn’t currently have an official state cheese, and it doesn’t have an official state microbe. If this bill passes, the bacterium would get included in the Blue Book, the biennial guide to state government, alongside other official state symbols — the wood violet (the official state flower), the muskellunge (the official state fish), and the Antigo Silt Loam (the official state soil). This isn’t the first time such a bill has been proposed. It was most recently introduced in 2023 by a bipartisan group of legislators. Lawmakers also considered this proposal 15 years ago, when it was introduced by Madison rep Gary Hebl.

Editor’s note: the header photo shows a generic bacterium, not Lactococcus lactis.