Cow Pats, Who's for hugging a heifer? Options

[wabbit]

With the outbreak of e coli cases following visits to 'family farms', has anyone else been put off taking little ones to these places?

It seems to me that little ones' fingers will always find their mouths and maybe we will have to return to the days when families went on country walks and just saw cows, sheep and goats from the distance of a farm gate, rather than get up close and personal with them?

Having had a rather unpleasant experience with a ram , I would rather just observe from a safe distance!

[lordtup]

Before everyone jumps on the latest bandwagon lets put things in perspective .

E.coli is endemic in most farm livestock , particularly calves , lambs and ducks . Generally they cause little or no problem to the host , but as it is zootic ( can pass across species ) , a real risk occurs when humans come in contact with it . Farmers are well versed in personal hygiene coupled with a degree of natural immunity and therefore are at minimal risk .
The problem real arises when members of the public are exposed to a pathogen their bodies have not experienced before , so hands that have been in contact are then in contact with mouth resulting in an upset tummy for 24 hours .
Normally this would be just one of those things that children get and nature would take it's course but somehow the first case was attributed to one of these theme farms and now every upset stomach is down to one of these visits .

Both public and owner must bear responsibility but by the same token they should also accept that contact with farm animals does carry a risk and necessary precautions should be observed , after all there are a lot more dangerous diseases on farms than this one (eg toxoplasmosis ).

[Wicca]

When I was younger, I was always made to wash my hands after petting one of the animals and again before eating anything, does this no longer happen??

[HJD]

In my opinion, a few years ago when children were allowed to play outside & get dirty there never seemed to be so many illnesses & allergies around. So what if you got a few germs or a bit of s**t on your hands your system soon became immune to it. Now, most of them spend so much time in front of the Telly or Play Station, so when they do get outside their bodies are just not used to it.