The 15 cm of snow that fell last night is as good of an indicator as any that agricultural fair season is over in this region. But, planning ahead is important (and often not done well with fair petting zoos), so it’s never to early to make a plan for next season. Petting zoos can
E coli outbreak and dog risks
I’ve had a few (well… more than a few) calls about potential risks to animals from the large Canadian E. coli O157 beef recall. The main concern is for dogs that are fed potentially contaminated raw meat that has been recalled, but there is also potential for exposure through cross-contamination if people in the
Petting zoo E coli: Wales
It’s perhaps a good sign for public health when I don’t tend to come home from a local fair and write a rant about the sorry state of the petting zoo. Around here, things seem to have improved at most events over the past few years, probably largely because of the efforts of local public
NDM-1 in a cat
When bacteria containing NDM-1 (New Delhi metallobetalactamase 1) were first identified a few years ago, I talked about it during presentations as something bad that’s coming our way. NDM-1 is an enzyme that gives the bacteria that possesses it resistance to a huge range of antibiotics, to the point that few or no viable treatment
Petting Zoo E coli outbreak
It’s been a while since I wrote about petting zoos. Part of the reason is that the state of petting zoos in this area has improved quite a bit over the past few years, so I haven’t been coming home from fairs or other events with a need to vent. However, improvements are not universal, and
Pet food (beef) recall: Canada
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) have issued warnings about frozen beef pet food made by Surrey Meat Packers of Cloverdale, BC. The Beef Pet Food consisted of frozen 500 g blocks of beef (presumably raw) sold between October 8 and 23, that may contain E.
Seagulls, beaches and bad bugs
Just as I’m getting ready to go on vacation (that will hopefully involve some time on the beach), I read an article in the latest edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases about seagulls and beaches as reservoirs of multidrug-resistant E. coli (Simoes et al 2010). In this study, the researchers collected seagull poop from
Boil water advisories: What to do with dogs?
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
Petting zoo outbreak investigation continues
The investigation into a large E. coli O157 outbreak linked to a UK petting zoo continues, and the number of potentially exposed people is astounding. There are a couple of reasons that I write a fair bit about petting zoos, and they are highlighted here: the potential for exposure of a large number of people and
Testing petting zoo animals
I received the following comment in response to a recent E. coli O157 and petting zoos post, and thought that it merited a post of its own.
"Why doesn’t the petting zoo owners have a fecal swab sample taken from each animal in the petting zoo and submitted for STx PCR screen testing. If