Yesterday the United Kingdom’s Health Protection Agency (HPA) said it expected more people to fall to E. coli O157 in the coming days after three more cases were linked to Godstone Farm, a children’s petting farm in Surrey, bringing the total number affected to 79.

Three children remain in the hospital in stable condition, and one two-year-old boy who suffered kidney failure was able to go home yesterday. 

petting farm article.jpg

Two families have announced that they will take legal action against the farm. “I will never, ever be setting foot in a farm with my children again. Not just Godstone Farm but any farm,” Gemma Weaver told a Surrey newspaper after her three-year-old son Alfie suffered kidney failure from battling E. coli. 

“We are taking legal advice,” added Weaver.

Out of the 102 different samples of animal feces taken from the petting farm by the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, 33 tested positive for E. coli.

Lambs, pigs, goats, cattle, ponies, rabbits, and ewes all produced positive results for E. coli, according to a UK press wire.

In addition to Goldstone Farm, three other petting farms have closed since the outbreak: Horton Park Children’s Farm, White Post Farm, and World of Country Life farm.

See for E. coli O157 Found in Feces at Petting Farm for more Food Safety News coverage of the outbreak.