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listeria and pregnancy
Author: Deb 
Date:   12-27-05 19:08

Hello everyone! Maybe someone can shed some light on this for me. I am 12 weeks pregnant and our lambing season starts in 6 weeks. Everything I am reading on line says absolutely no contact with newborn lambs or placental materials due to the risk of contracting listeria. This is going to be very difficult if not impossible! From what I have read, even if sheep are asymptomatic, listeria can still be present and shed, even if lambs are healthy and not stillborn, including chylamydia and toxoplasma.... My plan PRIOR to reading all this information was wearing long gloves, safety goggles, and a dust mask or half face respirator over my mouth to try to minimize my exposure. Has anyone here dealt with lambing during their own pregnancy? I may call my vet for advice. I would hate to be completely hands off and watch lambs die due to not being able to handle them.
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Re: listeria and pregnancy
Author: Gordon 
Date:   12-28-05 17:51

It would be best to talk to your Vet and your doctor about this.
They can give you all of the information on the risk and complicacations
that go with it. In the end the decision will be yours to make.
One way out might be to talk to the local 4-H or FFA advisor and try to hire
a teenager with sheep experience to help you through this year.
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Re: listeria and pregnancy
Author: Katy Venard 
Date:   12-30-05 10:12

I was pregnant last lambing season and it also would have been impossible for me to do nothing to help the sheep. When I needed to help a ewe I wore long sleeved OB gloves. I was also careful to wash my hands after handling the sheep before I ate, touched my face etc. The risk is small of something happening but it is there. I decided to be safe rather than sorry and I had a very heathly baby boy in august. =)
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Re: listeria and pregnancy
Author: deb 
Date:   01-04-06 20:01

THanks so much or your responses. Apparently there is no safe exposure and sheep shed this in their feces as well as chlamydia and toxoplasmosis. I've learned WAY more than I ever wanted from researching all this.....however it took me 6 long years to get pregnant so I am going to minimize my exposure even if the risk is small. I'm a chemist, so I've got a extra half face respirator, full poly suit to put on over my coveralls, (so I'm not bringing contaminants into my house) and safety goggles and the gloves like you mentioned. I wont be washing any lamb towels in my machine at home anymore either...they will just go in the trash this year. I dont know how many times I've had wet lambs shake and stuff has gotten in my eyes....so I'm going to try to minimize all routes of entry. I wonder how long it will take the sheep to get used to seeing me with all that crap on??? LOL. Its the best I can think of to do, and I wont be able to stand by and do nothing if their are lambing problems or its -10 out!
thanks again.
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