Deep Down on the Farm?

There has been a lot of media attention about Godstone Children's farm near Redhill Surrey being linked to an E. coli outbreak in visitor children who came to this popular attraction(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/surrey/8253823.stm). Certainly, an E. coli (a gastrointestinal bacterium of animals, including humans) infection is very unpleasant and can be especially problematical in young children. Most of the complaints were along the lines, "Why didn't the authorities close the farm as soon as a link was suspected?" The first thing to note is that there are many potential sources of so-called 'food poisoning' including dodgy vegiburgers, the children's own pets (e.g. terrapins), horses and streams containing agricultural run off. The testing laboratories don't have an easy task in such situations (it's not a notifiable disease) and links may appear more obvious in retrospect. The argument seems to be based in a modern insistence on having maximum entertainment with zero risk. I do think that it would be a great pity if children didn't get to interact with living animals (they learn a lot about their world in this way). Having said that, adults don't seem very good about stressing the need to keep little fingers out of mouths when holding animals or operating in locations where animals have been. I have even seen adults, as well as children, kissing animals to whom they have hardly been introduced! The farm in question seemed to have all the right signs and hand washing facilities. I suppose that one could rear specific pathogen free animals for such attractions but they would soon pick up infections (and probably die) if they were handled by children. I suppose also that one could develop animatronic pigs, sheep, goats and chickens but they would not be the real thing and would have to be sterilised on a regular basis.