baby-goatI think petting zoos can be great. I’ve taken my kids to many and think they’re a great way for people to see and interact with animals they would not normally encounter.

However, there’s always some risk, and petting zoos range from exceptionally well run to horrible. It seems like there’s been steady improvement over

Petting zoos are very common in the UK (as in many other regions), where approximately 2 million people visit 1000 different petting zoos every year. While the vast majority of petting zoo visits are simply pleasant outings associated with no problems, some people leave with more than just memories… they leave with an infectious disease. 

Here’s a reader’s question: "Our local water authority here on the East Bay of RI has issued a "boil water" alert because of the presence of e-coli as found in a routine test. My question is:  Do we need to boil dogs’ and cats’ drinking water as well? Seems that they eat the worst

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released updated Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Opportunistic Infections Among HIV-exposed and HIV-infected Children. A small but still important part of this document involves recommendations for contact with animals. It’s a nice, balanced document that acknowledges the risk but doesn’t make unnecessarily restrictive

Cryptosporidiosis is a diarrheal disease caused by several species of the genus Cryptosporidium, which are single-celled parasites. The disease can cause severe diarrhea.  It tends to make the news when outbreaks occur associated with contaminated drinking water, but outbreaks only account for the minority of cases reported each year. Infection can be very serious