There is now a sixth family suing AgVenture Petting Zoos for causing their children to fall ill to an infection of E. coli. Laurel Oliver’s two children, Grant, 4, and Veronica, 6, played in the petting zoo provided by AgVenture at the Central Florida Fair.
On WFTV News, Oliver said, “As a mother, my
In a Special to the Washington Post, E. Fuller Torrey and Robert H. Yolken point out that human infection via bacterial and viral transmission from animals have been around for a long time and does not discriminate. In Angola, about 150 people have died from the largest outbreak of Marburg hemorrhagic virus, also known
Dr. Lester Crawford, administrator of the Food and Drug Administration, and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns were keynote speakers at this year’s U.S. Food Safety Summit, held recently Washington. The topics of issue at this year’s summit were food defense and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
Johanns said, “Expanding our research efforts to improve the understanding
Although the Ag-Venture animals had been certified as healthy by a veterinarian within 30 days of visiting three Central Florida fairs, as required by law, the specific E. coli 0157:H7 strain that have sickened at least 26 visitors to petting zoos in Orlando, Plant City and Tampa was found in six animals from the petting
More than a half dozen people remain hospitalized, suffering from HUS, a life-threatening kidney ailment that the Florida Department of Agriculture and Health has traced more than two dozen cases of a disease caused by E. coli back to a Plant City-based petting zoo. 26 people contracted the disease from AgVenture’s petting zoos in
Green Meadows Petting Farm has pigs, cows, goats and sheep, in addition to a water buffalo, bison, ostriches and llamas. They also have hay rides, train rides and pony rides – all things that children love to interact with. However, the recent outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 and hemolytic uremic syndrome in Central Florida has
A Food Safety Research and Response Network has been created by 50 researchers from 18 colleges, including North Carolina State University.
The Network, funded by a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was formed to share knowledge and findings in order to more efficiently process information about food safety and processing. Research
The Associated Press reports that epidemiologists have matched DNA from E. coli bacteria in six animals — two goats, two sheep and two cows — to the DNA in the bacteria contracted by the victims of a recent Central Florida outbreak, thereby definitively linking the outbreak to animals from petting zoos at three fairs.
Marler Clark is calling on legislators nation-wide to put into law requirements for the protection of petting zoo visitors. Proposed requirements include increasing signage and warnings about health risks associated with human-animal contact, providing adequate handwashing facilities at strategic locations throughout petting zoos, and designing petting zoos with the intent of reducing the risks
At this weekend’s Lake County Fair, a scheduled petting zoo will be replaced by racing pigs, Local 6 News reports. AgVenture Farm Shows, the petting zoo who was supposed to be providing the animals, is currently under fire as the likely source of an outbreak that has sickened dozens of people throughout Central Florida.