Ice cream and pig poop don’t mix.

Slurping a cone, downing some fries, sucking on a pacifier — common enough fair-going behaviors as they might be — all pose the risk of illness if you’re checking out the four-legged fair exhibits.

More than 12,000 farm animals will attend the Ohio State Fair. Ugly things lurk in the piles they leave behind, and can linger in dust, on the animals themselves and on anything with which they come in contact.

Of most concern are E. coli and salmonella — nasty bugs that can keep you on the toilet for days on end, or worse.

"The animals are not sick with that. They just kind of carry that and those (pathogens) shed in their feces," said Dr. Kathleen Smith, state public health veterinarian.

In the past five years, three E. coli outbreaks sickened at least 97 fairgoers in Medina, Lorain and Wyandot counties. Of those, five contracted hemolytic uremic syndrome, a rare disorder that can cause kidney failure, particularly in children.

In general, children are most susceptible. A 2005 study from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services found that youngsters who sucked their thumbs or pacifiers or drank from sippy cups in animal areas were 26 times as likely to become sick.

That’s no reason for people to avoid a little up-close time with their fellow members of the animal kingdom, experts say.

Follow some simple advice and you probably have more to fear from fat grams than feces.

Before ordering deep-fried whatever, wash your hands with soap and ample water. Count to 20 while you do it. A good tip when coaching kids: Have them sing Happy Birthday twice while washing, to ensure a lengthy lather.

And for the sake of your innards, don’t eat cotton candy around the animals.

In fact, leave the cotton candy and anything else that goes in your mouth (including pacifiers and bottles and cigarettes) far from the animal exhibits and petting zoo, said Dr. Heather Bair-Brake, a veterinarian and expert in foodborne diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If possible, parents also should leave strollers outside the animal barns, she said.

Ohio State Fair organizers are braced to help: More than 20 designated areas with sinks, water, soap and towels are on the grounds.

And this year, there will be a sink outside the petting zoo.

On top of that, 33 handsanitizer dispensers are on the grounds with 216 liters of sanitizer on hand for refills, said fair spokeswoman Christina Minier.

Hand sanitizers are helpful but shouldn’t be used instead of washing, said Lydia Medeiros, associate professor of human nutrition at Ohio State University.

The first and best thing to do is wash and be careful not to touch anything afterward that could be contaminated, such as doorknobs, she said.

Sanitizers work best when used after washing, she said.

"There’s no big miracle here. It’s just do what you were told to do, and take the time to do it."

mcrane@dispatch.com