- Health officials have issued a warning against kissing, cuddling, or holding lambs due to an outbreak of cryptosporidiosis.
- Cryptosporidiosis is a severe parasitic infection that causes serious gastrointestinal illness, with symptoms including watery diarrhoea and stomach pains.
- Public Health Wales has advised farmers to prevent close contact between visitors and lambs this summer to curb the spread; people should also wash their hands after contact with animals.
- The alert follows an investigation into 74 cases of cryptosporidium linked to a petting farm in Vale of Glamorgan earlier this year, which led to 16 hospitalisations, including a four-year-old boy.
- There were also 17 outbreaks of the infection connected to farms across England and Wales in the previous year.
IN FULL
Parasite warning as farm visitors told not to kiss or hug animals during lamb feeding events
