Parasite warning as farm visitors told not to kiss or hug animals during lamb feeding events
Why you should think twice about hugging lambs this summer
- Health officials have issued a warning against kissing, cuddling, or holding lambs due to an outbreak of cryptosporidiosis.
- Cryptosporidiosis is a severe parasitic infection that causes serious gastrointestinal illness, with symptoms including watery diarrhoea and stomach pains.
- Public Health Wales has advised farmers to prevent close contact between visitors and lambs this summer to curb the spread; people should also wash their hands after contact with animals.
- The alert follows an investigation into 74 cases of cryptosporidium linked to a petting farm in Vale of Glamorgan earlier this year, which led to 16 hospitalisations, including a four-year-old boy.
- There were also 17 outbreaks of the infection connected to farms across England and Wales in the previous year.