[Serusers] DB disconnects with MySQL 5.0.27

[sip]

Something I've never run into before when I was using MySQL 4.x, but now crops
up on MySQL 5.0.27... I get these errors:

Feb  5 07:30:40 qabalah ser[26765]: submit_query(): MySQL server has gone away 
Feb  5 07:30:40 qabalah ser[26765]: db_update: Error while submitting query 
Feb  5 07:30:40 qabalah ser[26765]: db_upd_ucontact(): Error while updating
database 
Feb  5 07:30:40 qabalah ser[26765]: wb_timer(): Error while updating contact
in db 


I assume there's some sort of timeout of the SER connection to mysql? Is there
a standard way to rectify this? Is this something new in MySQL 5? 


N.