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.

Scores on Doors was too direct for the Brits, but now they’ve come out with a Cause for Concern scheme to name and shame meat plants that have lousy audits.

It’s part of the UK Food Standards Agency ongoing commitment to openness and transparency to regularly publish audit reports of approved meat plants in England, Scotland and Wales (audit here means those done by government inspectors, rather than third-parties; but I could be wrong, it’s not clear).

Cause for concern is a process developed in response to Professor Pennington's report on the 2005 E. coli outbreak in Wales, which recommended that there needed to be improved management oversight of poorer performing meat plants. The process makes it clear which plants need to improve their standards to ensure risks to public health are kept to a minimum.

There are currently eight premises on the list. This will be updated, initially on a weekly basis, to reflect changes as meat plants move on or off the list.

Tim Smith, Chief Executive of the FSA, said, “If our inspectors decided that hygiene standards in a plant are so poor that public health could be at imminent risk, we would immediately stop that plant from operating. However, for those businesses that could improve quickly by following our advice, we hope that publication of this list will push them to raise their game and get off the list.”

Never underestimate the Brits’ ways with words. In a discussion document ostensibly asking consumers what they think, the Food Standards Agency has pronounced that under its poorly named Earned Recognition scheme (bring back Scores on Doors), “food businesses that are able to demonstrate a history of good compliance with the legislation, or that are members of a private assurance scheme, would receive a lighter touch in terms of the number and type of official inspections.”

Has FSA heard about foodborne illness outbreaks associated with third-party audits or other such schemes?

The proposed changes will help to ensure consumer safety by concentrating resources where improvement is most needed, for example on businesses that are less compliant or higher risk.

Is that what lighter touch means? Sounds more like a fluffer.

The full report can be found at http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/earnedrecog.pdf.

Joan Hunt, 64, of Brixton, spent three weeks in hospital and needed treatment in intensive care after being infected with E. coli O157 in a UK outbreak linked to crab meat – or its preparation.

She has been left with only 35 per cent kidney function after developing the potentially deadly complication HUS.

Hunt recently told her story to the Plymouth Herald to raise awareness of symptoms and thank the hospital team who saved her life.

She is recovering after becoming dangerously ill in August – the month of a reported Plymouth E. coli outbreak believed to be linked to crab meat.

Joan does not know the source of her poisoning as she had not eaten crab. None of her family became sick.

"I felt I was going to die. I wasn't in control of my body, my body was controlling me. It was frightening.”

As reported in The Herald earlier this month, there is an ongoing investigation into an E. coli outbreak in Plymouth with a possible link to an unapproved crab supplier.

Investigators took action after nine cases emerged in August. There have been no further reports of illness linked to crab since.