Quit castrating sheep with your teeth!
My favorite piece of advice from my Dad this Christmas was a dire warning: “Stop castrating your precious sheep with your precious teeth - it will give you diarrhea and maybe worse. Also, we paid a lot for your braces. Also, it’s disgusting. So just stop it, okay?”
Apparently this practice is common enough at ranches that the CDC figured they should remind people that it’s not the most sanitary idea:
On June 29, 2011, the Wyoming Department of Health was notified of two laboratory-confirmed cases of Campylobacter jejuni enteritis among persons working at a local sheep ranch. During June, two men had reported onset of symptoms compatible with campylobacteriosis. Both patients had diarrhea, and one also had abdominal cramps, fever, nausea, and vomiting. One patient was hospitalized for 1 day. Both patients recovered without sequelae. During June, both patients had participated in a multiday event to castrate and dock tails of 1,600 lambs. Both men reported having used their teeth to castrate some of the lambs. Among the 12 persons who participated in the event, the patients are the only two known to have used their teeth to castrate lambs. During the multiday event, a few lambs reportedly had a mild diarrheal illness. Neither patient with laboratory-confirmed illness reported consumption of poultry or unpasteurized dairy products, which are common sources of exposure to C. jejuni (1). The patients resided in separate houses and did not share food or water; none of their contacts became ill.
And it’s a gross enough thing that Mike Rowe figured he’d give it a try on his show Dirty Jobs. Click here for a nasty video you probably don’t want to see.
