The UK Health Protection Agency is issuing a seasonal warning to pregnant women about the potential risk associated with close contact with animals that are giving birth.

Pregnant women who come into close contact with sheep during lambing, for example, may risk their own health, and that of their unborn child, from infections that can occur in some ewes.

Although the number of human pregnancies affected by contact with an infected animal is extremely small, it is important that pregnant women are aware of the potential risks and take appropriate precautions.

It is also important to note that these risks are not only confined to the spring (when the majority of lambs are born), nor are the risks only associated with sheep: cows and goats that have recently given birth can also carry similar infections.

To avoid the possible risk of infection, pregnant women are advised that they should:

• not help to lamb ewes, or to provide assistance with a cow that is calving or a nanny goat that is kidding;
• avoid contact with aborted or new-born lambs, calves or kids or with the afterbirth, birthing fluids or materials (eg bedding) contaminated by such birth products;
• avoid handling (including washing) clothing, boots or any materials that may have come into contact with animals that have recently given birth, their young or afterbirths; and,
• ensure partners attending lambing ewes or other animals giving birth take appropriate health and hygiene precautions, including the wearing of personal protective equipment and adequate washing to remove any potential contamination.

Sometimes, late in the morning, when there’s nothing else for background TV and the DVR is empty, I’ll put on the later version of Today with Kathie Lee and Hoda.

I never would have known about them except for the Saturday Night Live sketches.

It’s entertaining background – for all the wrong reasons.

Today it was, how to spread dangerous microorganisms all over the kitchen from raw lamb.

The food safety fun starts about 2:20 in the video below where Chef Michael starts touching the raw lamb and then everything else in the kitchen.

To the chef’s credit, he does say cook to an internal temperature of 140F, but doesn’t bother to use a tip-sensitive digital thermometer to show that the pieces Hoda finds too raw may be safe or not.

Color is a lousy indicator of pretty much anything.
 

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When health types warn about a certain activity, it’s code for, we have an outbreak but we can't tell you just yet, so be careful.

I should have been more cynical when the health types in Wales warned this morning about infections from petting zoos. I’m still naively optimistic.

There are at least 13 people sick with cryptosporidium after a lambing event at a stately castle in Wales.

The BBC reports, those who became ill visited Erddig Hall, owned by the National Trust, over the last 12 months.

Public Health Wales said there was no ongoing risk and that it would continue to monitor the situation.

Dr Judy Hart, Consultant in Communicable Disease Control, said: "Cryptosporidium is generally a mild disease.”

Unless you have the runs for six weeks.

A table of petting zoo-related outbreaks is available at:
http://bites.ksu.edu/petting-zoos-outbreaks

The table doesn’t include the ones in the U.K., which are particularly egregious, but will soon.

Once the kid goes to sleep, Amy and I usually adjourn to the bedroom, no matter how early, and chill.

I go through my ritual of flipping through bad TV while Amy does fascinating farm animal things on Facebook.

Last night, my flipping took me to the Primal Grill With Steven Raichlen, where the dude was cooking lamb chops on a shovel in a fire pit.

Apparently, by holding the shovel over the open wood fire, the smoke curls up over the shovel to add a robust flavor to the chops.

This guy’s got way too much time on his hands.

To check if the lamb was properly cooked, he pushed his finger into a chop, proclaimed it “spongy” and therefore done.

However you want to cook meat – with a shovel, a pick-axe, a V-8 engine -- use a tip-sensitive digital thermometer to ensure a safe food temperature.