Professor warns parents of under-fives after petting farm E coli outbreak

Published on Saturday 19 September 2009 19:56

PARENTS should "think very hard" about letting children under five touch the animals at petting farms, a leading microbiologist said yesterday after E coli was linked to four sites.

Professor Hugh Pennington said he was not happy with youngsters touching lambs, calves or young goats at all. He said they were "most likely to touch the animals" and "the most difficult part of the population to get to wash their hands". He also called for a review of guidelines on petting farms, following the closure of a farm in Devon on Friday.

World of Country Life farm, in Exmouth, was the fourth attraction forced to shut in the wake of the E coli outbreak at Godstone Farm in Surrey. A probe at the Devon attraction continued yesterday after the Health Protection Agency (HPA) found a potential link with three sufferers and advised closure.

Professor Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at the Aberdeen University, said: "We have to look very, very seriously at the guidelines that we have been running for many years and see if they need changing. There is an issue here and I think the public expects that we have a really good look at the guidelines and also at the way they are being implemented – it is all very well having guidelines if people are not following them."

He said he did not believe all petting farms should be closed but said he was "not terribly happy" with the idea of under-fives touching ruminants such as lambs, calves and young goats. Pennington said parents should not "abandon the idea of visiting" the farms, but should "think very hard" about letting under-fives touch the animals.

World of Country Life farm was advised to close by the HPA which said it was "acting on information that potentially linked the farm with three individuals with confirmed E coli 0157 infection". The farm shut voluntarily and the local authority, HPA and its partners are conducting an investigation.

An HPA spokesman said: "There are many potential sources of E coli and as yet there is no confirmation that the farm is the source of infection in these cases."

White Post Farm in Nottinghamshire was also shut after it was confirmed a second person was suffering from the same strain of E coli as a previous visitor. Godstone Farm in Surrey closed earlier this month and its sister farm, Horton Park Children's Farm in Epsom, is also shut because of "unsatisfactory" hygiene arrangements.

Pennington said "increased awareness" could be behind the rise in cases, adding: "Increased awareness by GPs, in particular sending in samples for testing, may be part of the reason why we're seeing an increased number of cases right now at the moment."

According to the latest figures from the HPA there have been 49 cases of E coli linked to Godstone Farm in Surrey, including nine children. One of the youngsters was due to be allowed home yesterday and the remaining children were in a stable condition, an HPA spokesman said.