Despite their general low incidence, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia (E.) coli (STEC) infections are considered an important public health issue due to the severity of illness that can develop, particularly in young children. We report on two Austrian petting zoos, one in Tyrol (2015) and one in Vorarlberg (2016), which were identified as highly likely infection sources of STEC infections. The petting zoo related cases involved a case of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) due to STEC O157:HNM in 2015 and an outbreak of STEC O157:H7 infections affecting five young children and two adults in 2016. The HUS case accounted for 2.8% of the 36 STEC O157:HNM/H7 infections notified in Austria in 2015 (5,9% of 17 HUS cases). The seven cases described for 2016 accounted for 4.0% of the 177 human STEC infections documented for Austria in 2016, and for 19.4% of the 36 STEC O157:HNM/H7 infections notified that year. The evaluation of the STEC infections described here clearly underlines the potential of sequence-based typing methods to offer suitable resolutions for public health applications. Furthermore, we give a state-of-the-art mini-review on the risks of petting zoos concerning exposure to the zoonotic hazard STEC and on proper measures of risk-prevention.

尽管其总体发病率较低，但产生志贺毒素的大肠杆菌（STEC）感染被认为是重要的公共卫生问题，因为这种疾病可能会发展成严重的疾病，尤其是在幼儿中。我们报告了两个奥地利的宠物动物园，其中一个在蒂罗尔（2015）和一个在福拉尔贝格（2016），它们被确定为STEC感染的极可能感染源。与宠物动物园有关的病例包括2015年因STEC O157：HNM引起的溶血性尿毒综合症（HUS）病例和2016年爆发的STEC O157：H7感染暴发，影响了5名幼儿和2名成年人。HUS病例占2.8％。 2015年在奥地利通报的36例STEC O157：HNM / H7感染（占17例HUS病例的5.9％）。2016年描述的7例病例占2016年奥地利记录的177例人类STEC感染的4.0％，占当年通报的36例STEC O157：HNM / H7感染的19.4％。本文所述对STEC感染的评估清楚地强调了基于序列的分型方法为公共卫生应用提供合适解决方案的潜力。此外，我们对宠物动物园接触人畜共患病STEC的风险以及适当的风险防范措施进行了最新的小型审查。