NC’s E. coli troubles not over

When UNC junior Sarah Anderson walked past the petting zoo at the N.C. State Fair this weekend, her group of friends briefly stopped — then walked right by.

“We passed it, and we all decided that it would be stupid (to go in) because of all the E. coli stuff we’d heard about last year,” she said.

Last year’s outbreak prompted a multi-agency study commission that set out to make fairs throughout the state more safe, particularly interactions between humans and animals, said Brian Long, state fair spokesman.

But the new regulations put in place by that committee did not stop a recent outbreak of E. coli at the Cleveland County Fair in Shelby.

One child has already died from the bacterial infection, according to a press release from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

Escherichia coli are bacteria that thrive in animal feces — especially from cattle, sheep and goats. The bacteria can be passed from person to person by touching materials contaminated with the bacteria.

But when the news about the E. coli outbreak in Cleveland County broke, it was too late to change the systems in place, Long said.

The preventative policies already in place at the fair should be effective, he said.

And there is no way to completely prevent E. coli infections when dealing with animals, Long said.

He said the state fair is trying to prevent E. coli outbreaks by increasing awareness that people need to be washing their hands after touching the animals.

This year’s fair features more hand washing stations and more visible signs.

Anderson said she noticed the increase in this effort at the state fair this year.

“One thing I did notice was that there were a lot more hand sanitizing stations this year,” she said.

Long said another measure the commission used to increase its sanitation was to limit the interaction between humans and animals.

This year, fair organizers are focusing on keeping animals at competitions out of reach of the public and directing pedestrian walkways away from the animals.

“We looked at ways to reduce the potential of people to touch animals that they aren’t supposed to touch,” he said.

But to Anderson, these efforts were less noticeable than the hand-washing effort.

N.C. State University freshman Graham Freels, who also attended the fair this weekend, said he didn’t notice an increased separation between animals and humans in any part of the fair.

“When I went through the animal areas, they basically looked the same (as last year) with the metal gate (between me and the animals),” Anderson said.

Neither student was worried the fair would lose business because of the outbreaks.

“There were a ton of people, you couldn’t really walk fast,” Freels said.

The N.C. State Fair will be open until Oct. 21.

Contact the desk editor at state@dailytarheel.com.