PREGNANT women should avoid close contact with sheep during the lambing season, according to Dr Nick Gent, Director of public health at Morecambe Bay Health Authority.
Close contact between pregnant women and sheep carries a risk that the health of the unborn child could be damaged by infections such as chlamydiosis, toxoplasmosis and listeriosis, which are a common cause of abortion in ewes.
Advice for NHS North West is for pregnant women to avoid:
l helping to lamb or milk ewes
l contact with aborted or new-born lambs, or with the afterbirth
l handling clothes, boots or other garments which have come into contact with ewes or lambs.
Dr Gent said he was confident that farmers in the area would respond positively to the warning and said pregnant women should seek medical advice if they experience fever of influenza-like symptoms if they are concerned that they might have acquired the infection from a farm environment.
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