What We Know About the Arizona State Fair E. coli Outbreak
If your child came home from the 2025 Arizona State Fair and ended up in a hospital bed a week later, you already know the part that’s hardest to explain to people: nothing about that day felt dangerous. The fair ran September 19 through October 26, 2025 at the fairgrounds on West McDowell Road in Phoenix, and the petting zoo was one of the gentlest things there.
Investigators with the Maricopa County Department of Public Health and the Arizona Department of Health Services traced a Shiga toxin-producing E. coli outbreak to that petting zoo. When the county closed its investigation on January 6, 2026, the final count was 18 confirmed or probable cases, 16 of them children.
Why a Petting Zoo Spreads E. coli
Healthy farm animals carry E. coli in their gut and shed it in their manure, so the animal doesn’t have to look sick for a child to get sick. CDC’s guidance for petting zoos and animal exhibits is to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water immediately after touching farm animals or anything in the habitat, to avoid touching your mouth before washing, and for adults to supervise hand washing for young children. CDC treats hand sanitizer as the fallback for when soap and running water aren’t readily available, not as the primary control.
That’s the gap Ron Simon & Associates alleges existed at the 2025 fair. Families who spoke to reporters described the same sequence over and over: pet the pigs and goats, then go get food.
It didn’t used to work this way in Arizona. Will Humble, a former director of the state health department, wrote in December that for years state health staff visited the fair’s petting zoo before opening day to make sure it had barriers, limits on how many kids could be inside, hand-washing sinks with soap and running water at the entrance and exit, and a staff monitor making sure children washed on the way out. That practice, he wrote, appears to have been dropped. “The 2025 outbreak demonstrates that Arizona can’t rely on safety practices that disappear when health department leadership changes.”
This risk is neither rare nor surprising. In its 2025 surveillance summary on animal contact outbreaks, CDC reported that “An estimated 450,000 enteric illnesses, 5,000 hospitalizations, and 76 deaths associated with animal contact occur each year in the United States.” Between 2009 and 2021, CDC counted 557 animal contact outbreaks of enteric disease reported nationally, with E. coli behind 63 of the outbreaks that had a single confirmed cause.
How Many People Got Sick, and When the Public Was Told
Maricopa County’s final accounting came on January 6, 2026, when it closed the investigation and confirmed the petting zoo as the source: 18 confirmed or probable cases, 16 of them children. County officials said 13 of the 18 cases reported attending the Arizona State Fair. State health officials also acknowledged a rise in HUS hospitalizations alongside the increase in E. coli cases last fall.
The public learned most of that late. On November 13, 2025 the state health department sent a healthcare advisory to providers about a two-fold increase in E. coli cases for October, without naming the fair publicly. Records later obtained by Arizona reporters showed genetic test results, primarily dated that same day, had already matched at least 11 cases to a single strain, weeks before the county’s January confirmation. State health officials have defended the timeline. A department spokesperson said in December that the agency “categorically disagrees” that it withheld critical information, and that there was no ongoing risk once the fair had ended.
In the gap, families found each other. Parker’s Promise, a nonprofit that supports families affected by HUS, was contacted by parents at Phoenix Children’s Hospital in early November, and by late November told reporters it had heard from nearly 200 people. Reports to a nonprofit are not confirmed cases, and we’re not presenting them as the outbreak’s size. But if your child got sick after the fair and was never counted in anything, that has no bearing on whether you have a claim.
Who Ran the Petting Zoo
The petting zoo was operated for the fair by Great American Entertainment, a Texas-based company that has run the attraction for at least 15 years, according to Food Poisoning News reporting confirmed by a fair spokesperson. The same reporting notes that public records connect the company to a 2005 E. coli outbreak at a fair in Fresno, California that left six children hospitalized. The company is not a defendant in the lawsuit and did not respond to reporters’ requests for comment.
The fair’s spokesperson told reporters that its protocols remained unchanged from previous years, and that hand-washing stations and restrooms existed inside the agriculture building that housed the petting zoo, though they were not a dedicated part of the exhibit.
Why HUS Is the Injury That Changes These Cases
Most E. coli infections are miserable and then over. A minority become hemolytic uremic syndrome, and those cases are different.
CDC describes HUS as a very serious complication of STEC infection that can lead to kidney failure, permanent health problems, and even death, and says that among people with diarrhea it is most common in children younger than 5. About 8 in 10 children with HUS have a STEC infection. Most people with HUS recover within a few weeks, but some suffer permanent health problems or die, which is why these cases get valued over a lifetime of care rather than a hospital stay.
The danger also builds at a confusing moment. HUS can develop as the diarrhea is starting to improve, exactly when a worried parent is finally starting to relax. One Phoenix-area teenager in this outbreak was diagnosed with HUS only after a second trip to the emergency room.
First Lawsuit Filed Over the 2025 Fair Outbreak
On August 3, 2026, Ron Simon & Associates, together with Phoenix firm Gallagher & Kennedy, P.A., filed the first lawsuit over this outbreak in the Superior Court of Arizona in and for Maricopa County. The complaint names the State of Arizona and the Arizona State Fair as defendants, and it was brought on behalf of a six-year-old boy identified by the initials J.L.
Ron Simon & Associates alleges that J.L. and his mother visited the fairgrounds on October 26, 2025, the final day of the fair, and spent time in the petting zoo area handling pot-bellied pigs and goats before going to get food. The firm alleges that no readily available hand-washing station was provided in the petting area, only hand sanitizer, which the family used.
Within three days J.L. developed bloody diarrhea, fever, and severe abdominal pain. A stool specimen taken at Phoenix Children’s Hospital on November 1, 2025 tested positive for Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. By November 4 he had been diagnosed with hemolytic uremic syndrome and Stage 3 acute kidney injury, and he required dialysis, a central line, and admission to the pediatric intensive care unit. He was hospitalized for 21 days. Health officials confirmed that genetic sequencing identified J.L.’s E. coli isolate as a genetic match to the outbreak strain.
Ron Simon & Associates alleges that J.L.’s long-term prognosis remains uncertain and that he faces a significant risk of future kidney failure and a possible transplant as he grows. The firm puts medical expenses to date at more than $453,000, with anticipated lifetime medical costs it estimates could reach $3 million or more.
The suit asserts claims for negligence, strict liability, breach of implied warranty, negligent hiring, training and supervision, and respondeat superior. Among the specific allegations, Ron Simon & Associates contends the fair encouraged patrons, especially children, to touch livestock without adequate warnings, instruction, or supervision, failed to provide sufficient hand-washing stations with soap and water at entrances, exits, and transition areas, including stations sized for young children, failed to warn that livestock and pigs in particular are well-recognized carriers of E. coli O157:H7 and that children face heightened risk of severe illness, and failed to adequately clean and disinfect enclosures, gates, fencing, and other high-contact surfaces. A jury trial has been demanded.
“A six-year-old spent three weeks in the hospital on dialysis. This was preventable.”
Ron Simon, Ron Simon & Associates
Ron Simon told 12News that the family’s ordeal was “life or death for several days during his hospitalization,” and made the point that sanitizer was never going to be enough on its own: “You need someone there with soap and water, not hand sanitizer, because it’s not effective.”
The Arizona State Fair told 12News that the health and safety of its guests is its highest priority, and said it couldn’t discuss the lawsuit further because of the litigation.
This isn’t expected to be the only case. Ron Simon told 12News the firm is already representing several other people who say they got an E. coli infection after visiting the fair. This also isn’t the firm’s first fair petting zoo case. Ron Simon previously represented a family in the 2019 San Diego County Fair E. coli outbreak.
What Arizona Did After the Outbreak
The response went in two directions.
The Maricopa County Fair dropped direct animal contact. Its director confirmed that the April 3 through 12, 2026 fair would run without a petting zoo or pony rides, keeping livestock exhibits behind barriers, with hand-washing stations and signs asking visitors not to touch the animals.
Senate Bill 1082 went the other way. Prefiled on December 30, 2025 by Senator John Kavanagh, it would have required petting zoos and animal encounter exhibits statewide to make sure visitors wash with soap and water or use hand sanitizer on leaving the animal area, to post warning signs at every entrance and exit, to keep animals enclosed with a controlled entrance, to keep an adult supervisor monitoring hand washing at all times, and to give the state health department inspection and enforcement authority. On February 17, 2026 the bill failed in the Senate Natural Resources Committee on a 4 to 4 vote. It did not become law, so Arizona still has no statewide hand-washing requirement for petting zoos.
Your Legal Rights
If your child touched animals at the 2025 Arizona State Fair and then got sick, you may have an E. coli lawsuit. Strong cases usually include a positive stool test or hospital records documenting Shiga toxin or HUS, medical records showing when symptoms started, and proof you were at the fair on a particular day.
One thing sets this outbreak apart from an ordinary food poisoning case, and it’s worth being blunt about. The Arizona State Fair is run by a state entity, and Arizona puts claims against public entities on much shorter clocks than an ordinary injury case. Those clocks can also run differently for a child’s own claim than for the claims a parent holds, like the medical bills they’ve paid, so two claims from the same family can have two very different due dates. Don’t assume you’re too late, and don’t assume you have time. Call us and we’ll tell you exactly where each claim in your family stands.
For background on the infection itself, start with our E. coli lawyer page, and if HUS was part of your child’s diagnosis our HUS lawyer page explains how those claims are built and why they’re valued over a lifetime. This outbreak is tied to a single venue in Phoenix, and our Arizona food poisoning lawyer page covers how claims work here.
Ron Simon & Associates is a food poisoning law firm representing children and families in serious E. coli outbreaks nationwide. Our E. coli lawyers can obtain the health department and hospital records, work with your treating physicians on the kidney injury, and pursue compensation for medical bills, hospitalization, future care, lost wages, and pain and suffering. You pay our law firm nothing unless we recover compensation for you. Results vary by case. Call 1-888-335-4901 for a free consultation.