Luckily, the animals at fair, at least here in CA, are all animals owned by children, 4H and independents. Not that they couldnt have disease, but they are generally back yard bred and not from large herd or farms, so actually pretty isolated until they get to the fair. I think we are getting these disease problems from the large factory farms with the horrible CAFO operations. These fair animals are getting handled to be trained for the fair, and sickness would be noticed as the kids work with them a few times a day. They are very well fed, exercised and cared for.
No animals are let into the fair without being examined by a vetrinarian. Even the chickens. ( we had a rooster turned away for lice year before last, and I thought I had checked him out thoroughly...) Then, the pens are cleaned twice a day, and all walk ways are swept a few times a day, so while ti is possible, it is unlikley to bring anything home by walking thru the livestock barns. If you pet an animal, can happen, but you cant pet the pigs, just the goats realy are petted alot at ours. ANd there are handwashing stations at both ends of all livestock barns, and I remind parents to have their kids wash hands if they have petted ours.
I sure hope they dont require more --- any more hoops to jump thru and we might throw in the towel.
Often, tho, just the stress of being at fair all week means that -- at least for the goats -- they get sniffles and the change to our local fair water gives a few of the youngest goats/pigs diarea each fair, but they get over that.
