'I'm starting to think I'm in the wrong business'

Health code for petting farms

Victims: Kidney-failure twins had weeks in hospital

Carol Clark admitted last night the school visits centre she runs with husband David had been closed again recently, after a girl of five from Darlington was hospitalised by the same bug which caused last year's problems. The girl is said to be fully recovered since being taken ill at the end of April.

Mrs Clark said she was puzzled only two children had been infected in the outbreak in question and could not help wondering if the bug had been picked up elsewhere.

Last year, in the panic which followed the big Surrey outbreak, Hambleton Council closed her business for six weeks after tracing eight cases of E. Coli O157 back to it. She took council advice on changing practice and this time the Big Sheep Little Cow centre at Bedale was closed only for a few days. It is attached to a commercial farm run by her son, Duncan.

"I am beginning to think I am in the wrong business," she said. "I set this up 22 years ago for children to do magical things like feeding chickens and lambs. Now we have to have the chickens locked away in case someone stands in some poo. As for bathing a pig, which we used to do, it is clearly so dangerous I would need to call in the army to do it again. And it has become our job to educate everyone in hygiene.

"It is simply not practical to screen animals for E Coli and there is no vaccination that can get rid of it.

"We are trying to eliminate a risk you cannot eliminate and the Griffin Report threatens to take us to the point where we say to people: 'You can look but that's your lot'."