At some point, people will start asking, how did this happen? Why didn’t organizers of the Ekka pay attention to all the petting zoo outbreaks globally in the past 10 years? And why would the organizers of the Ekka issue a statement like they did on Aug. 23, 2013, stating, “The Ekka has been held here for 136 years, with millions of people passing through our gates over this time, and this is the first incident of this type that we are aware of.”

According to Queensland Health nine people are confirmed to have STEC and a further 17 people are being tested for the infection. Three of these people have been admitted to hospital.

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