White Post Farm near Mansfield, Nottingham, has reopened after it closed as a precaution to allow the Health Protection Agency (HPA) to investigate a possible link with an E.coli O157 outbreak.

The attraction was the subject of a full investigation by the HPA after it was confirmed that a small number of people who recently visited the site had contracted the illness, but has now been given the all-clear. However, the HPA has advised Hambleton District Council to partially close Big Sheep and Little Cow Farm near Bedale, North Yorkshire, to enable an investigation to get underway into a possible link between the attraction and three confirmed cases of E.coli O157.

A further five cases remain unconfirmed, but the HPA said that tests would be carried out in order to ascertain the cause of the outbreak and that only "one in 50 of all cases are associated with outbreaks linked to petting farms". It has also been confirmed that the number of cases now linked to Godstone Farm in Surrey has increased to 83. Four children currently in hospital have been described as stable and none are said to be seriously ill.