Agriculture is a large part of Minnesota’s economy, supporting more than 340,000 people through food animal production and processing support services. Zoonotic diseases (diseases that can be passed between animals and people) are a risk to agricultural workers, their families, and others exposed to food animals. However, little information is available describing specific risk factors on the farm for developing a zoonotic disease and how frequently agricultural workers and their families get sick from food animals. The UMASH project at the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) focuses on describing the size of this problem in agricultural populations, which can be used to develop more effective prevention measures to minimize the occurrence of zoonotic diseases.

Diarrheal illnesses such as Cryptosporidium, E. coli O157:H7, Campylobacter, Salmonella are reportable to MDH, and all ill people are interviewed with a routine questionnaire that includes questions about agricultural exposures (living, working, or visiting a farm, petting zoo, fair, or other venue with animals). Since January 2012, patients with agricultural exposure have been re-interviewed with a more detailed questionnaire about the types of activities they were doing with the animals. Based on these interviews, 51% of patients with a Cryptosporidium parvum infection, 25% of patients with an E. coli O157:H7 infection, 26% of patients with a Campylobacter infection, and 13% of patients with a Salmonella infection had a food animal exposure in the week before their illness. For all but Salmonella, the percentages of ill people with food animal contact are much higher than previously reported estimates; (Cryptosporidium 16%, E. coli O157:H7 6%, Campylobacter 17%, and Salmonella 11%). MDH offers educational materials to these patients, and 57% of them were interested in receiving the materials.

In addition to collecting data on recent zoonotic infections, MDH has offered four, free full-day workshops to people associated with county fairs and two free evening workshops to people with agritourism operations (apple orchards, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, etc.) on how to have safe human-animal interactions. These workshops have been well-attended and well-received, and we plan on continuing them on a yearly basis.

This past summer we had two outbreaks of E. coli O157 associated with different county fairs. MDH has been working closely with the fair board presidents and will be providing onsite consultations for the fairs to discuss measures that can be implemented for next fair season in order to prevent future outbreaks from happening.