Statistical analyses. Statistical analyses were performed in Microsoft Excel 5.0 (Microsoft Corporation, http://www.microsoft.com/) using Student's two-tailed t tests. Mean 6 standard deviation (SD) was calculated for each graph. If visually absent, error bars are too small to be depicted based on the scale of the y-axis.  The Trojan Chicken Study, Minnesota We conducted a study in the summer of 2004 at county fairs in the Midwest to investigate the role poultry exhibits have in spreading avian pathogens to humans. A nearly invisible powder (pathogen surrogate) that fluoresces under UV light was surreptitiously sprinkled each day on 1 show bird at each of 2 fairs. A UV light box was used to daily examine the hands of 94 poultry-exhibit participants (blinded regarding UV box results) for up to 4 days during the poultry shows. Enrollment and end-of-study questionnaires collected data on pathogen risk factors. Eight (8.5%) of 94 participants had evidence of fluorescent powder contamination (95% confidence interval 2.76%–14.26%). This contamination and infrequent handwashing practices suggest that county fairs are a possible venue for animal-to-human pathogen transmission. We conducted a study in the summer of 2004 at county fairs in the Midwest to investigate the role poultry exhibits have in spreading avian pathogens to humans. A nearly invisible powder (pathogen surrogate) that fluoresces under UV light was surreptitiously sprinkled each day on 1 show bird at each of 2 fairs. A UV light box was used to daily examine the hands of 94 poultry-exhibit participants (blinded regarding UV box results) for up to 4 days during the poultry shows. Enrollment and end-of-study questionnaires collected data on pathogen risk factors. Eight (8.5%) of 94 participants had evidence of fluorescent powder contamination (95% confidence interval 2.76%-14.26%). This contamination and infrequent handwashing practices suggest that county fairs are a possible venue for animal-tohuman pathogen transmission. R ecently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared avian influenza to be the world's number-1 health threat (1); in particular, the wide and rapid spread of the H5N1 strain has heightened concerns. All H5N1 cases to date have been associated with direct contact with poultry, but recently, human-to-human transmission has been purported in Thailand (2) . Previously healthy children and young adults seem to be especially susceptible to this illness (3) . As of February 27, 2006, a total of 173 confirmed human cases of avian influenza A (H5N1) and 93 deaths have been reported to the World Health Organization, for a case-fatality rate of 53.8% (4) .