After last year’s E. coli outbreak at the North Carolina State Fair, many local fairs like the one in Greensboro are being extra careful to ensure sanitation around animal exhibits.

“I think it raises awareness and educates people on not only keeping yourself healthy by washing your hands, but also keeping the animals safe,” said Wendy Gumpert.

“My kids know after you touch a chicken, after you touch an egg or chicken coop, go wash your hands,” she explained.

Other parents like Elizabeth Scott are especially relieved to see the hand-washing stations.

“It’s a big thing to allow them to be able to wash their hands. Especially because my youngest one likes to put her hands straight in her mouth after she touches anything,” said Scott.

Scott says years ago, it was hard to even find hand sanitizer at fairs.

And I still say, people have to be careful, and a lot more careful than they thought.

A table of petting zoo outbreaks is available at  http://bites.ksu.edu/petting-zoos-outbreaks.