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Geronimo: Alpaca's death prompts petition to change TB testing

Helen Macdonald Geronimo the alpacaHelen Macdonald
Marie Smith said the petition was evidence of the growing number of people concerned about the TB vaccine

A woman calling for changes to the way animals are tested for bovine TB following the death of Geronimo said "it's not just vegans and animal rights activists wanting to save an alpaca".

The animal was killed in August after twice testing positive for the disease.

Campaigner Marie Smith said the case highlighted problems with testing and wants officials "to admit it's wrong".

A government spokesman said there was no scientific basis the tuberculin skin test caused "false positives".

The petition has received almost 35,000 signatures.

Marie Smith Protesters at Geronimo's fieldMarie Smith
Miss Smith supported Geronimo's campaign and helped organise protesters at the Gloucestershire farm

Miss Smith, 38, an anti-species-ist activist who "fights for any being who is oppressed" said: "It's not just vegans and animal rights activists wanting to save an alpaca, it's the whole general public saying this doesn't seem right at all.

"All the people marching in London because of it, animal rights activists, farmers and countryside lovers, it's bringing all of them together.

"It's really making this new alliance of people coming up to Defra and saying you need to change this."

She said she wanted to see active trials of vaccination in cattle and camelids and to move away from the "inaccurate skin test and to test using blood tests only".

Marie Smith Marie Smith looking at chickensMarie Smith
Miss Smith believes Defra did not need to kill Geronimo as the farm was biosecure and he could have helped research

A Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs spokesman said: "The chances of a false positive using the Enterplex test - the test requested by the owner in August 2017 and ... promoted by the British Alpaca Society over any other TB antibody tests - are less than one percent."

It said the injection, given 10 - 30 days ahead of the blood test, "essentially amplifies the antibodies already in the animal because of infection but does not trigger the production of new antibodies".

Geronimo's owner had called on Defra to allow the alpaca to be tested for a third time or let him live to aid research into the disease.

Marie Smith Marie Smith smiling in a selfieMarie Smith
Miss Smith said a lot of farmers had signed and shared the petition "which is a good indication of what they think"

The spokesman explained the Actiphage test (which identifies mycobacteria - bacteria that causes TB in blood or milk) was not validated so its results were "difficult to interpret".

He added: "For the blood test to work, it requires bovine TB bacteria to be circulating in an animal's blood, which doesn't necessarily happen until the advanced stages of TB."

Miss Smith, from Cornwall, hopes the petition will encourage Defra to "listen to the public and farmers and to just get back more in touch because I think they're really out of touch at the moment".

"I just want them to listen and be open to conversation rather than burying their heads in the sand."