23 Jan 2023
RVN Helen Macdonald still waiting on apology – more than year after Defra admitted it could not definitively prove euthanised alpaca had bTB.
Allister Webb
Job Title
Geronimo the alpaca.
The owner of an alpaca that was euthanised amid suggestions it had bTB has claimed his death “destroyed” testing cooperation between animal owners and government agencies.
RVN Helen Macdonald said she still wants an apology over the handling of Geronimo’s case, more than a year after Defra admitted it could not definitively prove he had the disease.
The department previously maintained that officials were guided by the best available scientific evidence.
But Ms Macdonald said the case, which made worldwide headlines in the summer of 2021, has had far-reaching consequences both for her and the sector as a whole.
She said the department had failed to engage with concerns about suspected false positive tests and only a handful of owners were continuing to engage with a testing scheme that had originally been intended to build trust in the industry.
She said: “Defra have destroyed voluntary testing, surveillance testing in camelids full stop. We battled with them in the early stages and said ‘this is massively damaging. You agreed to learn with the industry. You agreed to look at cases individually’.
“They said all the right things at the time and they’ve shafted the British Alpaca Society (BAS). They’ve scuppered it, and the alpacas and the owners in the middle are stuffed.”
BAS chief executive Duncan Pullar said his organisation had voiced its concerns about Geronimo’s treatment, but believed it was “responsible” to continue engagement with both Defra and the APHA.
The society wrote to Defra the day after Geronimo was taken away from Ms Macdonald’s Gloucestershire farm, condemning his treatment as “abhorrent” and demanding a public inquiry.
Mr Pullar said: “BAS will continue to work with Defra to improve disease policy and implementation, because if you are not part of the discussion, you cannot influence it.”
However, Ms Macdonald argued that “nothing happens” during those meetings.
She added: “They just pay lip service to the whole thing and people have actually stopped wanting to engage with them at all, on a BAS level, because it’s pointless.”
A Defra spokesperson said: “We work closely with the alpaca sector on a wide range of issues within the bTB policy area.
“This includes liaising with the main stakeholder organisations – the British Alpaca Society and British Llama Society – to encourage owners to have their animals tested by means of a voluntary TB testing protocol agreed with the societies. We also meet stakeholder organisations regularly throughout the year.
“This is a terrible disease for both owners and animals impacted by it, which is why we always take quick action to limit its spread.”
The department has previously pointed out that Geronimo tested positive for the disease on two separate occasions, using what it claims were “highly specific tests”.
Speaking prior to Geronimo’s euthanasia, CVO Christine Middlemiss said: “While I sympathise with Ms Macdonald’s situation, we need to follow the scientific evidence and cull animals that have tested positive for TB, to minimise spread of this insidious disease, and ultimately, to eradicate the biggest threat to animal health in this country.
“The tests used on Geronimo were developed for use on alpacas and are highly specific – the chances of a false positive are significantly less than one per cent and we have tested him twice. Not just for the benefit of our farming industry, but to avoid more TB cases in humans, our disease control measures must be applied.”
But, three months after Geronimo was euthanised, government scientists admitted they could not culture bacteria from tissue samples taken at the time of postmortem, meaning they could not prove for certain he had the disease – although they also insisted it did not show he didn’t.
Ms Macdonald maintains she can demonstrate Geronimo was not exposed to the disease, and believes that both Defra and the wider profession want the issue to go away.
She added: “They have made a choice not to deal with this professionally and scientifically since 2017.”
Ms Macdonald spoke out a few days before George Eustice – who was Defra secretary when Geronimo was euthanised – announced he would be standing down as an MP at the next election, and she described the announcement as “good news”.
