Geronimo row ‘undermining fight against bovine TB’

EFFORTS to stop tuberculosis are being undermined by the Government’s hardline approach towards Geronimo, the condemned alpaca, an influential breed society has warned.

The British Alpaca Society demanded urgent talks with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and accused the secretary of state, George Eustice, of “not being properly briefed”.

Controversy continues to swirl around the planned killing of Geronimo after the animal twice tested positive for bovine tuberculosis (BTB). The alpaca is kept on a farm in Gloucestershire after being imported from New Zealand by Helen Macdonald, who agreed to the testing as part of a voluntary regime.

She believes the two tests produced false positives, but Defra has refused to authorise any further analysis and plans to destroy the animal after winning a High Court battle.

Ms Macdonald’s fight to save Geronimo has won significant public support – including a petition with more than 100,000 signatures – in a saga that has put pressure on Defra to show clemency. Now, the British Alpaca Society has voiced concerns that Defra’s handling of the case has “considerably undermined confidence” in the testing regime.

It accused Mr Eustice of being badly briefed over a weekend newspaper article he wrote which contained “factual errors” about the tests Geronimo underwent.

The intervention comes despite Defra twice highlighting its work with the society in developing the testing regime used on alpacas, in a blog defending its actions this week.

Duncan Pullar, the chief executive of the society, last night said that owners buying or selling alpacas would feel little desire to agree to voluntary testing in the wake of the Geronimo stand-off.

He said: “The amount of information we have about where this disease is would reduce and, because of that, cases would probably multiply because they’re getting missed.

“Longer term, that’s bad news for everybody.”

Asked whether the Geronimo case was damaging the fight against BTB, he said: “Yes, that’s our irritation with Defra. They seem to be blind to the fact that if they handle this in a more sympathetic way, they would improve the confidence of alpaca owners in TB testing.” Speaking from her farm yesterday, Ms Macdonald expressed hope that Defra could be persuaded to commute Geronimo’s death sentence.

She said that her lawyers had written to the department highlighting a section of the Animal Health Act which would allow Geronimo to instead be examined for scientific research.

Defra has previously defended the tests carried out on Geronimo, saying they had less than a one per cent chance of returning a false positive and insisting the alpaca needs to be killed to protect animal health.