Don't let your under 5 year olds touch animals....

Yes, like so many of you I grew up playing in the dirt, hanging around ponies and holidaying on Aunty's Dairy Farm. I was never sick and it is a mystery to me that e coli seems to be such a problem in the UK. I never hear of it in France where out butchers still have cooked and fresh meat on the same counter - no longer allowed in the UK.

HOWEVER e coli is a killer it causes renal failure which is why two small children are on dialysis. There was a major outbreak in Scotland where hundreds of people were sick and many died.

I am obsessive about raw meat hygiene in my kitchen for that reason. Separate knives and boards for raw meat and vedgetables. 18 months ago my husband and I contracted food poisoning in Cambodia - no joke I can tell you.

I think farm visit are fantastic fun for kids but people should be aware of risks and responsibilities when coming into contact with manure/slurry etc. Media hysteria? perhaps but many parents may not understand 'why' hygiene is so important - they do now.
 
Can't see kids visiting petting farms coming into contact with manure/slurry though.
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total bollox.

this has happened because kids just cant be kids these days...

they are all wrapped up in cotton-wool and not able to get "dirty"


so just deal with it.............

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No need to be rude to me.

I was just saying I thought it was sad, is all.
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I agree with all the above,and also diddnt expect any other responce from HHO
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My grandmother always said kids and clothes can be washed and enjoyed seeing her childrena nd grandchildren up to our eyes in mud and muck-ment we were outside having fun!

Living in filth is obviously bad for you,but so is living in hospital standared sterile houses,the balance needs to be found again.
I for one wont be stopping R going to play with animals anytime soon
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I think he was more at risk of nasties a couple of years ago when he had a thing for tipping the cats litter tray up
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This strain of Ecoli is quite new, and you can't get resistant to it. If you get it you are ill. No-one knows how it got to the UK and not all animals have it.

And we are farmers.

Incidentally, in the USA there was a study to find out if anyone had ever got an infection from horse manure and the answer is - no.
 
Oh dear. I must be a very bad mummy in the eyes of some. This Saturday we went to M-i-L’s & friends & my 3 year old had played with her spaniel, ridden the horse, petted the sheep, admired the hens & ducks & eaten his lunch – not sure he washed his hands !! then in the afternoon he played in the garden at my dad’s splashing through the fountain and getting a face full more than once. So the H & S police will be after me I think!!
 
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Oh dear. I must be a very bad mummy in the eyes of some. This Saturday we went to M-i-L’s & friends & my 3 year old had played with her spaniel, ridden the horse, petted the sheep, admired the hens & ducks & eaten his lunch – not sure he washed his hands !! then in the afternoon he played in the garden at my dad’s splashing through the fountain and getting a face full more than once. So the H & S police will be after me I think!!

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Don't worry - HHO will shelter you! I think you'll be in good company here!!
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Oh honestly!! Yet more media hype!!

I've survived to the great age of 43 and have just scraped some mould off a piece of cheese, and fully intend to eat the remainder!!

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QR I agree with comments about living in a world that is often too sterile. By that I mean the UK, not talking about other countries, just here.
A good bit of dirt and fluff never hurt anyone. Whether child or adult. I know I never came to any harm from mixing stroking animals, climbing trees, making mud pies, playing with worms and creepy crawlies, rolling around on the grassy banks etc I may or may not have washed my hands before eating after doing any of the above activities. While your mum may have told you to wash hands etc, how many of us actually did especially if like most mothers they are trying to juggle several activities at once or have more than one child to see to at a given time.
Hell there may have been times that my parents may have forgotten to tell. Heaven forbid. What a crime, ooh deary me. I am still standing though. I still have a functioning liver, two working kidneys and other normal major organ function.
I don't fall for media hype. I also don't believe that a lot of these diseases, bacteria's, viruses and other organisms are completely new either.
Just because certain individuals had made no previous record of them in our past does not mean that they didn't exist.
If particular strains of bacteria and viruses have been formed by mutation though then I blame ourselves.
Why? Because of ( sorry not being very 'arty' here) all the shite we as humans have pumped into our ecosystems. All that shite, (chemicals and so on) have gone somewhere. They are in our food chain and food chains of the creatures that live around us.
Pumping chemicals into the air, land and sea. Did we really not think this would ultimately affect us somehow?
When we started to feed farm animals food that was really not suitable for that particular digestive system.
Intensive farming methods both arable and livestock. Chemicals used as pesticides or artificial fertilisers. Genetically modifying crops. Hell if you mess with mother nature at any level then life will find a way to retaliate in one way or another.
All this coupled with people's obsession to use bleach, disinfectant and anti bacterial wipes/sprays wherever they see fit has caused the poor immune systems of today's children and adults that are vulnerable ( ie weakened through age/disease). Unless we seriously change our ways then this will just get worse not better.
You cannot wrap children up in cotton wool for whatever reason. To ensure a healthy future population both in the coming years and thousands of years time ( if we haven't already managed to destroy ourselves by then) then children need to be exposed to bacteria/viruses. Call them what you like. Yes it is true we have managed to eradicate completely some diseases or have done in some areas. We have lessened the chances of outbreaks of certain diseases, whether by pills, liquid, sprays or vaccinations.
But at what cost ultimately? Nature will find a way. As horse owners we already know the implications of overusing horse wormers and how it is affecting controlling certain worms as they become immune or more tolerant of certain drugs.
Bacteria's and viruses are made up of naturally occurring organisms. Whether we change their make up by introducing chemicals to produce superbugs or mutations is another matter. But no matter how hard we try I don't believe that we will totally eradicate many of the modern day 'bugs' that are around.
We may slow down their spread through an area or population but that is it as far as I am concerned. Nature will find a way.
We as pollutants of the land that we roam on, air that we breath and sea/water that we swim in are just giving these 'bugs' a helping hand so to speak.
The only natural way as far as I am concerned to defeat most of these 'bugs' is to meet them head on. By exposure in most cases we will build up our own immunity to the strains. But by continually trying to avoid contact by over sterilisation, non exposure and the over use of antibiotics and similar drugs we are ultimately driving the nails into our own coffins and those of our children and children's children.
A little bit of dirt never hurt anyone.
For our children's sake and their future, Let today's children be just that, children.
Let them play, get dirty, expose themselves to bugs and what not. Let children develop their own immune system instead of us trying to control them artificially!
Sorry for long post. It just that this whole furore over whether kids should be allowed to pet animals etc really makes me mad
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You would be happy to eat in a restaurant where the chef used the toilet or emptied the bin and then prepared your food without washing his hands?

That would be pretty head on.
 
That is completely different to what my post was referring to so stop being pedantic!
My post was mainly referring to children stroking animals , playing outside and generally doing what kids do before eating food, or putting hands to mouth etc.
But as your post was indeed provoking a response here it is:
With reference to chefs in restaurants how do we not know that this is indeed what they do. I certainly know a lot of men who do not wash their hands after handling their bits whilst urinating.
If you want proof of this just see how long the queues are for the ladies loo compared to those for the men's when attending public events. I know from my experience most of the congestion in the loo is caused by women trying to wash and dry their hands when there are never enough hand driers compared to the number of sinks and toilets. I think that is probably why a lot of women give up trying to wash their hands and just walk out instead.
Mind you, you are from France are you not where they have unisex toilets don't they still? So you may have seen how men consistently fail to wash their hands after going to the toilet first hand already.
So the question is does every chef, male or female always wash their hands after using the toilet facilities?
Do customers have access to cctv footage inside toilets or kitchens/food preparation areas to witness whether chefs or people responsible for food handling do this? So how could we possibly know for sure either way?
Generally women do wash their hands. But I have witnessed some women not doing so when using public toilets regardless of whether they had urinated or defecated. For reasons mainly as already described above, except perhaps for those who are so intoxicated on a night out it is a surprise that they even managed to find the toilets let alone urinate in the pan!
But to answer your question. Yes I would. Do you know why? Because chances are I have done so already. I may well have eaten food that has been prepared in less than hygienic conditions or where inadequate hand washing after going to the toilet has occurred by those preparing the food.
I am still alive and well today though!
I rest my case........
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....also I see a legion of lawyers preparing to sue the petting zoos into oblivion because some of the parents of the 'victims' of this outbreak see pound signs lighting up large....Once more we have a media feeding frenzy that will ruin businesses and leave our children thinking a chicken is something that comes in a plastic wrapper from Sainsburys.
 
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