On Tuesday afternoon, October 27, the County of San Luis Obispo Department of Public Health announcedfive confirmed cases of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) and an investigation into a possible link to Brookshire Farms, the pumpkin patch, corn maze and Christmas tree farm on Los Osos Valley Road. The farm has closed voluntarily. Tuesday night, FOX 4 in Dallas reported that Dallas County Health and Human Services is lab-testing a cluster of STEC infections in children and investigating whether they came from the petting zoo at the State Fair of Texas. Add the five confirmed cases at Bengtson’s Pumpkin Farm in Homer Glen, Illinois, four of them hospitalized, and that is three investigations, in three states, tied to animal attractions at fall events – all made public in the five days since October 23. Every October I write some version of this post. This year I am writing it three times over.
What San Luis Obispo County has said.
Five confirmed STEC infections. A suspected exposure period at Brookshire Farms that was first announced as October 16 through 18 and then, in a 4:00 p.m. update, widened to October 16 through 26 – the entire last ten days the farm was open. The source of the infections is under investigation. The county is telling anyone who visited during that window and develops cramping and bloody diarrhea, typically three to ten days after the visit, to call their doctor, and it notes that children under 10 face the greatest risk of complications. County Health Officer Dr. Christy Mulkerin urged anyone exposed and symptomatic to seek medical attention immediately. The farm is cooperating, and, according to KSBY, its owner has said a direct link to the farm has not been confirmed.
One housekeeping note for the county: the updated release widens the window to October 26, but the subheadline and the Spanish-language version still say October 16 through 18. A family that reads the Spanish release, visited on October 22 and has a child with bloody diarrhea today may conclude they are outside the window. Fix it.
What the county has not said.
Ages. Hospitalizations. Whether anyone has hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). The serotype – O157 or a non-O157 STEC. Whether the five isolates have been sequenced and match. Most importantly, what at the farm is suspected. A pumpkin patch is not a single exposure. According to the farm’s promotional listings, Brookshire offers hayrides, grain-cart rides, pedal carts, a jumping pillow, duck races, a playground, a hay climb, a hay maze and a corn maze, and a U-pick directory lists farm animals, school tours, birthday parties, fresh eggs and a picnic area where families can eat their own food. Was there animal contact? Where were the handwashing stations relative to the animals and the kettle corn? Were school groups on the property between October 16 and 26? Those answers tell parents and physicians where to look, and they cost the county nothing to release.
The State Fair of Texas: a “cluster,” children in the hospital, and a fair that says it has not been notified.
According to FOX 4, Dallas County Health and Human Services confirmed it is lab-testing a cluster of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli cases affecting children of a range of ages, is still interviewing families, and is investigating whether the State Fair petting zoo is the source. The county is not yet calling it an outbreak. At least two families told the station their children are hospitalized in Dallas, and Children’s Medical Center Dallas says it has seen an uptick in cases. The county has not released a case count, ages, hospitalizations, whether any child has HUS, or the serotype.
The fair’s own website describes the petting zoo in Little Lone Stars Land as a place to get close to emus, zebras, pigs and goats, with a nursery of sows, ewes, nanny goats and their young – and it advertises that fairgoers can feed the animals. The fair’s statement to FOX 4 says it has not received official notification, that it follows CDC-recommended precautions at its animal exhibits, and that no precaution can eliminate every risk. That last line is true. It is also why the precautions have to be the right ones – soap and running water at the exit, no food or bottles in the pen, someone watching the children – and why the fair should be asked now, in writing, what exactly was in place.
This is not the State Fair of Texas’s first brush with this. In the mid-2000s, after a run of petting zoo outbreaks around the country, the fair scrapped its Children’s Barnyard petting zoo when insurers raised rates; at the time, that petting zoo relied on hand-sanitizing gel and signs. Two decades later, the Arizona State Fair’s petting zoo outbreak taught the same lesson about sanitizer, and the Arizona State Fair has dropped direct animal contact for 2026. The State Fair of Texas did not.
Dallas County should do what I am asking of San Luis Obispo and Will counties: publish a case count, ages, hospitalizations and any HUS; issue a health alert to North Texas pediatricians and emergency departments; open a survey for fairgoers; sample the animals and the environment before the animals are gone; and sequence everything. The fair runs for weeks and draws enormous crowds, and once it closes the petting zoo and livestock animals scatter to their home farms. Every day of delay is a day of lost samples.
Brookshire closed the whole farm. Bengtson’s closed only the petting zoo. The State Fair has closed nothing.
The responses are worth comparing. In Illinois, Bengtson’s closed its petting zoo on October 23 and kept the rides, food stands and corn maze open with the health department’s blessing. Animal and environmental samples were taken on October 26, results are expected around November 5, and, as I wrote this morning, more than 200 visitors have filled out the county’s symptom survey. In California, Brookshire shut down entirely, in the last week of pumpkin season, while the county figures out what happened. That is a costly decision for a family farm, and it is the right one. It does not tell us whether the source is an animal, the environment or something sold on site. It does mean no one else is being exposed while the county finds out. In Texas, nothing has closed, and the fair says it has not even been officially notified.
| Brookshire Farms (San Luis Obispo, CA) | Bengtson’s Pumpkin Farm (Homer Glen, IL) | State Fair of Texas (Dallas, TX) | |
| Made public | October 27 – SLO County Public Health | October 23 – Will County Health Department | October 27 – Dallas County HHS, via FOX 4 |
| Confirmed STEC cases | Five | Five (as of October 26) | A “cluster”; no count released |
| Ages / hospitalized / HUS | Not released | Ages 4 to 38; four hospitalized; HUS not reported | Children of various ages; at least two hospitalized per families; HUS not reported |
| Exposure window | October 16–26 (revised from October 16–18) | On or after September 29 | Not released |
| What closed | The whole farm, voluntarily | Petting zoo only | Nothing reported; fair says it has not been officially notified |
| Suspected vehicle | Not stated | Petting zoo under investigation; food-service inspection clean | Petting zoo under investigation |
| Animal / environmental testing | Not stated | Sampled October 26; results expected about November 5 | Not stated |
Sources: SLO County Public Health release (October 27, 2026, as updated 4:00 p.m.); KSBY (October 27); FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth (October 27); Will County Health Department statements as reported by The Herald-News (October 26). Read October 27.
These are not food outbreaks, and food inspections will not solve them.
When STEC follows a farm visit, the vehicle is rarely a menu item. It is manure – on a goat’s coat, a pen rail, a hay bale, a stroller wheel, a shoe, the hand that then holds a cup of cider. Ruminants carry these bacteria without looking sick and shed them intermittently, which is why the Compendium of Measures to Prevent Disease Associated with Animals in Public Settings warns that a negative animal sample taken days after the fact does not clear the pen. The record goes back decades: the 2004 North Carolina State Fair, a Tennessee farming camp in 2022, the Willow Grove pumpkin patch in Longview, Washington, and last fall’s Arizona State Fair petting zoo outbreak, which sickened 18 people, hospitalized 11 and left six with HUS. The fixes have not changed either: soap and running water, not hand sanitizer, at every exit from an animal area; animal areas kept away from where people eat; no food, bottles or pacifiers near the animals; and someone watching to make sure small children actually wash.
Are the three connected?
Nothing released so far suggests they are. Three venues in California, Illinois and Texas, in the same few weeks of the busiest season of the year, is what the calendar looks like when hundreds of thousands of families with young children get close to livestock in October. Whole genome sequencing will answer the question, and all three counties should say whether their isolates have been uploaded to PulseNet.
What the counties should do now.
San Luis Obispo specifically: correct the exposure dates in every version of the release. Publish ages, hospitalizations and any HUS, and update them on a set schedule. Say whether the farm had animal contact and whether animals and surfaces have been sampled. Open a visitor survey the way Will County did, and push it to the schools that brought classes between October 16 and 26. Alert local pediatricians and emergency departments that bloody diarrhea in a child who visited the farm is STEC until proven otherwise – and that antibiotics and anti-diarrheals are a bad idea in that child. Sequence the isolates and publish the results, whatever they show.
For families: if your child visited Brookshire Farms between October 16 and 26, Bengtson’s on or after September 29, or the State Fair of Texas this fall, and develops bloody diarrhea, severe cramps, decreased urination, unusual paleness or lethargy, see a doctor and tell them about the farm visit. HUS can develop a week or more after the diarrhea starts. Background on E. coli, HUS and staying safe around farm animals is available.
Frequently asked questions
How many people are sick in the Brookshire Farms E. coli outbreak? Five confirmed STEC cases as of October 27, 2026. The county has not released ages, hospitalizations or HUS cases.
What is the exposure period? October 16 through 26, 2026, according to the county’s 4:00 p.m. update. Some versions of the release still show October 16 through 18.
Is Brookshire Farms open? No. The farm closed voluntarily while San Luis Obispo County Public Health investigates.
Has the source been found? No. The county says the source is under investigation and has not said what at the farm is suspected.
Is the State Fair of Texas petting zoo linked to E. coli? Dallas County Health and Human Services is investigating whether a cluster of STEC cases in children came from the petting zoo. No case count or confirmation of a source has been released, and the county is not yet calling it an outbreak.
Are the Brookshire, Bengtson’s and State Fair of Texas cases connected? There is no indication they are. Whole genome sequencing will show whether any of the isolates match.
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