PHILADELPHIA E. coli-infected girls linked to petting zoo

The Philadelphia Zoo is investigating the possibility of infected animals.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The Philadelphia Zoo closed two petting areas as a precaution Saturday after two children who visited the zoo last month came down with E. coli infections.
Zoo officials do not think its Children's Zoo or African farmyard is the source of the infections, which sent two girls, ages 3 and 5, to the hospital in early August. No zoo animal has tested positive for the illness, the officials said.
However, the girls were infected with the same strain of E. coli, had visited the zoo on subsequent days in late July and had no other risk factor in common, city health officials said.
Both recovered from the illness, which, in extreme cases, can cause serious kidney damage and death. Their symptoms included bloody stools and intestinal cramping, but no fever -- all typical of E. coli.
"They actually had relatively mild illnesses," said Dr. Marguerite Hawkins, a medical epidemiologist with the city.
Possible link
The girls, who live in different sections of Philadelphia, visited the zoo on July 26 and 27 and became ill on Aug. 2.
One child went to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia on Aug. 3 and was treated and released, while the other was at the same hospital from Aug. 5 to 7.
Health workers probing a possible link learned of the zoo connection Friday and contacted officials there, who agreed to close the petting areas.
"They're both closed until we eliminate the possibility that it's us," Philadelphia Zoo spokeswoman Gretchen Toner said Saturday. "We are a huge family attraction, and we have the public trust in mind."
Tainted food, including undercooked hamburger meat, is the most common source of the 73,000 cases and 61 deaths from E. coli reported in the United States each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
One of the girls who became ill this month does not eat meat, while the only meat the other ate before getting sick was a well-cooked steak, Hawkins said.
Other zoo incidents
In the fall of 2000, an E. coli outbreak linked to cattle at a Montgomery County petting zoo sickened 16 children, including 3-year-old Erin Jacobs of Jeffersonville, who later required a kidney transplant from her father.
The Philadelphia Zoo tests all mammals for E. coli and retests animals in public contact areas twice a year. The zoo also has hand-washing stations in the petting areas. The zoo plans to test the animals for E. coli 0157:H7, the strain that sickened the girls.
About 40,000 people visit the zoo each week, Toner said.
Eleven E. coli illnesses have been reported in Philadelphia this year, in line with the 15 to 20 typically reported, Hawkins said.