Petting zoos can breed illness: 3 studies show bacterial infections from animal-to-human contact

Three new studies being presented at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases meeting in Atlanta will be dealing with bacterial outbreaks at petting zoos and the simple measures people can take to prevent infection, reports HealthDay News.
All three studies discuss human behavioral patterns and how they affect whether or not they were infected with E. coli at petting zoos. The general concensus is that simple but thorough handwashing may be the best preventative measure.
Correct handwashing, according to Philip M. Tierno, Jr., the director of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology at New York University Medical Center, involves washing your hands the length of time it takes to sing Happy Birthday twice. “You have to wash in between your fingers, the top of your hands and under the nail beds,” he said.