A possible E. coli outbreak at State Fair of Texas has sickened seven people, according to news reports. Investigators are looking at possible links, including the fair’s petting zoo. Officials, however, are emphasizing that neither the cases or a connection to the fair has been confirmed.
Mary McGonigle-Martin, vice president of Parker’s Promise, a nonprofit that supports families whose children have been hospitalized with serious infections such as E. coli said in a statement, “We have learned that there are multiple families that have very sick children in two different hospitals in the Dallas area.”
And Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Dr. Philip Huang said doctors alerted the county this week to the outbreak. A potential common link among the patients is recent visits to the fair. Huang said in a statement, “They thought [it] might be associated with being at the petting zoo at the state fair. We are still trying to follow up on that, because we haven’t seen or received all of the lab reports.”
If children are sickened and have been hospitalized, there is a very good chance that they have developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a type of kidney failure, that can develop after an E. coli infection. HUS can damage the kidneys severely. Some patients need to go on dialysis and even may require kidney transplants later in life. This syndrome can also cause strokes and seizures.
The issue with petting zoos is that ruminant animals, such as cows and sheep, harbor E. coli bacteria in their intestines. The animals do not have the cellular structure necessary for E. coli bacteria to cause infection, so they appear and are perfectly healthy. The pathogen is shed in feces, which can aerosolize and contaminate anything in the environment. Then when young children visit these animals and pet them, the pathogen can get on their fingers. And as we all know, children often put fingers in their mouths. And can get sick.
If this outbreak is linked to the fair, it will be the third Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) outbreak at attractions this month. Those outbreaks were at Bengtson’s Pumpkin Farm in Illinois and at Brookshire Farms in San Luis Obispo, California.
If you were at that fair, which ran from September 26 to October 18, 2026, watch your family members for signs of an E. coli infection and hemolytic uremic syndrome for the next week to 10 days. Anyone experiencing those symptoms needs to see a doctor as soon as possible.
