County fair, Fort Bend County, Texas

In 2003 twenty-five people - fair visitors and animal exhibitors - became ill with E. coli O157:H7 after attending the Fort Bend County Fair in Rosenberg, Texas. There were four cases of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome and one case of Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura. All seven laboratory-confirmed cases had an indistinguishable PFGE pattern which matched with ten isolates obtained from environmental samples taken at four animal husbandry sites. Case-patients ranged in age from 18 months to 67 years. Eighteen other environmental specimens were positive for E. coli O157:H7 but were determined by PFGE analyses to be different strains from the outbreak strain. Investigators concluded that both the rodeo and animal exhibit areas were heavily contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. There was no association between illness and food or beverage consumption (Reynolds et al, 2004; Durso et al, 2005).