| What is important to not here is that petting (contacting
the exterior of) live animals is not the infection source, but the handling
and consumption of their butchered and extracted interior tissues (meat
and milk) is!
E. Coli Forces Closures at Philly Zoo By MARYCLAIRE DALE
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The Philadelphia Zoo closed two petting areas as a precaution Saturday after two children who visited the zoo last month came down with E. coli infections. Zoo officials do not think its Children's Zoo or African farmyard is the source of the infections, which sent two girls, ages 3 and 5, to the hospital in early August. The zoo tests all animals in public contact areas for E. coli twice a year, and plans to test the animals again for the strain that sickened the girls. The girls visited the zoo in late July, and had no other risk factor in common, city health officials said. Both recovered from the illness, which in extreme cases can cause serious kidney damage and death. Health workers contacted officials at the zoo after learning of the connection. Tainted food, including undercooked hamburger meat, is the most common source of the 73,000 cases and 61 deaths from E. coli reported in the United States each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the fall of 2000, an E. coli outbreak linked to cattle at a Montgomery County petting zoo sickened 16 children. On the Net: Philadelphia Zoo: http://www.phillyzoo.org U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov |