Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-7qhmt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T14:47:56.417Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Escherichia coli O157 infection associated with a petting zoo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2002

A. E. HEUVELINK
Affiliation:
Inspectorate for Health Protection and Veterinary Public Health, PO Box 202, 7200 AE, Zutphen, The Netherlands
C. VAN HEERWAARDEN
Affiliation:
Inspectorate for Health Protection and Veterinary Public Health, PO Box 202, 7200 AE, Zutphen, The Netherlands
J. T. M. ZWARTKRUIS-NAHUIS
Affiliation:
Inspectorate for Health Protection and Veterinary Public Health, PO Box 202, 7200 AE, Zutphen, The Netherlands
R. VAN OOSTEROM
Affiliation:
Inspectorate for Health Protection and Veterinary Public Health, Hoogte Kadijk 401, 1018 BK Amsterdam, The Netherlands
K. EDINK
Affiliation:
Municipal Health Service Gooi en Vechtstreek, PO Box 251, 1400 AG Bussum, The Netherlands
Y. T. H. P. VAN DUYNHOVEN
Affiliation:
National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands
E. DE BOER
Affiliation:
Inspectorate for Health Protection and Veterinary Public Health, PO Box 202, 7200 AE, Zutphen, The Netherlands
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

A young child was admitted to hospital with haemolytic-uraemic syndrome caused by infection with a Shiga toxin 2-producing strain of Escherichia coli (STEC) O157. Five days before he became ill, the child had visited a small petting zoo. STEC O157 strains were isolated from faecal samples from goats and sheep housed on the farm. The human and the animal isolates were indistinguishable by molecular subtyping. The petting zoo voluntarily closed temporarily to prevent further cases of infection. Two out of 11 other, randomly selected petting zoos (including one deer park) visited subsequently, tested positive. Furthermore, during the study period there was one more notification of STEC O157 infection possibly linked with a farm visit. Although STEC O157 was indeed found in the petting zoo associated with this patient, transmission through animal contact could not be confirmed because the human isolate was not available for subtyping. The case study and the results of the other on-farm investigations highlight the risk of acquiring severe zoonotic infections during visits to petting zoos.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press