Pupils have been banned from visiting farms on school trips because of fears that they could catch a disease from the animals.
Renfrewshire Council ordered a stop last week on all organised trips to farms throughout the region after an increase in cases of the illness.
Now there are fears that a special children's farm run as a charity may be forced to get rid of its pigs, cows, and rabbits.
Mr Charlie Doran, the manager of Lamont Farm, Erskine, said: ''This ban has hurt us and we may have to cut back on our livestock.
''We are a voluntary organisation and we need this money to pay for maintenance of the farm and the animals.
''I just hope this ban does not last for much longer and we can get back to letting the city kids see all the animals.''
The ban was brought into place by Renfrewshire Council after a recent outbreak among children of Cryptosporidiosis, which can last for five weeks and causes stomach pain and diarrhoea.
A spokesman for the council said: ''The farm visits have been temporarily suspended after advice and consultation from environmental services and the Argyll and Clyde Health Board.''
However, Mr Doran said that his farm imposed stringent health and safety conditions and was safe for children to visit.
''We get frequent visits from the environmental health department which ensure that we are very safety conscious,'' he said.
''We have employees who walk around with the groups of children and who make sure that the children don't eat or drink anything while visiting the farm.
''We also make sure that, before they wash their hands, the kids keep their hands away from their mouths, just in case there are any bugs.
''And after they have visited the farm, a member of staff actually goes into the toilets with the children and makes sure they wash their hands properly with the special germicides.
''I can't speak for other business farms, but we have been running for the last 21 years and we have never had any problems.''
However, Mr Doran said that if there was any risk, then the children must be protected, no matter what the cost to the farms were.
''The ban has hurt us but if the council feel there is any risk to the children then they must do what they feel is right. The kids must come first.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article