26 Jul 2021
RVN and alpaca breeder Helen Macdonald has been campaigning since 2017 to prevent the Government from euthanising Geronimo, suspected to be infected with Mycobacterium bovis.
Joshua Silverwood
Job Title
Geronimo the alpaca.
A vet nurse is in a race against time to stop the Government euthanising her alpaca after a four-year campaign and multiple bTB tests.
RVN and alpaca breeder Helen Macdonald has been campaigning since 2017 to prevent the Government from euthanising Geronimo, her imported alpaca, suspected to be infected with Mycobacterium bovis.
Ms Macdonald was due to appear at the High Court on 29 July to appeal a warrant acquired by the APHA to euthanise Geronimo (pictured).
She said: “It began when we imported Geronimo from New Zealand in 2017. He was imported from a certified high‑health status farm. They have high quality assurance over there; a bit like here.
“We had always tested our animals as a matter of best practice, and all was going well until Geronimo produced a positive test result.
“We asked for him to be retested and Defra said yes. After that we raised concerns that Geronimo had been through four lots of tuberculosis injections, and we felt that could have impacted the test results.”
Ms Macdonald argues that Defra changed the testing protocol carried out on Geronimo, resulting in them carrying out tests for multiple forms of tuberculosis including the avian variant.
She added: “They essentially told me that if I didn’t agree to have the test done, they were going to kill him then.
“I had no choice but to accept that as a way forward. It was either a dead animal, or I let them do what they wanted.”
The RVN is joined in her fight by the British Alpaca Society, which has funded validation work into Enferplex tests carried out on Geronimo.
Defra informed Ms Macdonald in August 2017: “Given the very high specificity of the Enferplex 4-antigen test and the positive 4-antigen spot test result, the likelihood of this alpaca being infected with M bovis has been assessed as high, even if the prior probability of contracting TB in its country of origin is assumed to be as low as one per cent.”
In December 2017 Alistair Hayton, vet and director of Synergy Farm Health, was brought in to inspect Geronimo’s test results as carried out by the APHA.
Dr Hayton noted in a letter to Ms Macdonald that Geronimo had a response to three antigens, the numbers of positive antigens had declined and no response occurred to an early secreted antigenic target 6-kDa protein test, thought to be the most specific test for M bovis.
Dr Hayton concluded: “Given these observations, and that there is very reasonable doubt from a clinical and epidemiological perspective as to whether the animal is a true M bovis positive, then we would continue to highly recommend caution in interpretation of the results.”
In March the following year the British Alpaca Society sent a letter to environment secretary George Eustice condemning the decision.
In the letter, the society noted that Geronimo had been exposed to tuberculin through tests on numerous occasions. It also detailed how Geronimo was exposed to tuberculin “twice within four-and-a-half months, and three times in 14 months”.
The letter read: “Even were one to accept that 12 months is a reasonable interval, this has clearly been ignored, with the last two Enferplex tests he has effectively been primed within an exceptionally short time frame.”
In a July 2018 letter responding to Ms Macdonald, Mr Eustice said he believed the positive tests were accurate.
Mr Eustice said: “Officials have explained to me that it is reasonable he could have been exposed to infection while in New Zealand. This could have occurred at a show or the holding from which he was purchased.
“This is a highly specific test. The validation work paid for by the British Alpaca Society demonstrates this. Properly validated serological tests such as Enferplex tests for Camelids are potentially valuable.”
Speaking with ITV West Country in January 2020, Geronimo’s vet Bob Broadbent said: “The test that was used on him when he came into the country was not the type of blood test that is validated in alpacas.
“We have a test that works well, and we know works well, and Defra amended that test to the way in which it works with cattle, and we don’t know how that would work with alpacas. I suspect that test, amended, gave a false positive result.”
Ms Macdonald said: “Today Geronimo remains fit and healthy four years after he left his high herd health status farm in New Zealand. We have only ever asked for fair treatment and the use of validated testing.”
