Geronimo, a six-year-old alpaca, first arrived on these shores from New Zealand four years ago, back in August 2017. His importer, Helen Macdonald, a veterinary nurse and alpaca breeder based in the village of Wickwar in south Gloucestershire, had requisitioned the stud alpaca for breeding purposes. Geronimo was unlucky enough to test positive for bovine tuberculosis on two separate occasions following his arrival in the UK, even though he had previously tested negative while still in New Zealand, and has been quarantined, kept on death row, for most of his time on English soil. The Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) decided to end his life, and his days were accordingly numbered. A legal battle to keep him alive followed, only for the final appeal to be overturned by the High Court in London in early August 2021. This decision naturally led to an outpouring of support for the condemned Geronimo, including a protest march on Defra’s headquarters in Westminster which then proceeded to the Downing Street gates on 9 August, as well as an online petition signed by over 100,000 people for the Prime Minister’s attention.
Alpacas are camelids, members of the Camelidae family, along with llamas, guanacos and vicunas. In their natural Andean habitat in South America, domesticated alpacas can live for up to twenty years and are not normally prone to tuberculosis. Cases of bovine tuberculosis have, however, been reported among alpacas being reared in the UK, explaining why Geronimo is being targeted by the government.
Bovine tuberculosis is a notifiable chronic infection of cattle caused by Mycobacterium bovis, an organism which can potentially infect other mammals, including humans, who are usually infected by drinking contaminated and unpasteurized cow’s milk. Most infected cattle do not show any symptoms, unless the infection has reached its advanced stages. Although British cattle herds are mostly tuberculosis-free, the infection has yet to be eradicated completely. Sporadic cases of bovine tuberculosis do continue to occur and have been linked to cross-species infections, from either close contact (aerosol inhalation or contact with saliva, urine, faeces or milk) or environmental contamination. For example, British badgers were first noted to have bovine tuberculosis in 1971, during the course of investigation of an otherwise unexplained outbreak of tuberculosis in cattle. It is now believed that the infection is endemic among badgers, especially in the South West of England, making them a major wildlife reservoir of infection. This observation has led to a controversial ongoing “industry-led” badger cull since 2013 (to be phased out after 2022), to reduce local badger populations by at least 70 per cent, through their licensed killing by either cage trapping and shooting or free shooting.
Tests for bovine tuberculosis in alpacas are carried out in the UK by officially designed veterinarians and paid for by the government. Blood samples are taken from between ten to thirty days after the intradermal injection of bovine tuberculin, a mycobacterial protein extract. The tests available, including the Enferplex and DPPVetTB tests, are reportedly similar with respects to numbers of false positive and false negative results. A positive test may lead to an infected alpaca to be isolated and even slaughtered, by order of the Secretary of State for the Environment, under the Tuberculosis (Deer and Camelid) (England) Order 2014.
Geronimo’s breeder is unhappy that his previous tests may have generated false positive results, as indeed does the British Alpaca Society. She has requested a final test using an alternative and presumably more accurate test, the Actiphage PCR test- a request which has, however, been denied by the government. As a last resort, a human shield of “alpaca angels” has even promised to protect Geronimo from his increasingly inevitable execution.
It can prove to be an emotive decision when it comes to slaughtering a seemingly healthy animal with years still to live. But it is difficult to resist the decision when veterinarians acting in an official capacity give the green light to proceed, and when the government claims to be acting for the greater good. There is, however, a need to consider alternative options, such as bovine tuberculosis vaccination for high-risk animal populations, particularly cattle, to prevent the unnecessary killing of otherwise healthy animals deemed guilty by association and not through any direct fault of their own.
Ashis Banerjee
PS: Geronimo was executed on 31 August 2021