A series of EID meetings has seen a massive variety of queries about the rules and regulations. Still got your own burning questions? We can help.Many alpaca owners are not treating bTB seriously
THE British Alpaca Society (BAS) has warned its members ignoring bovine TB (bTB) could have dire consequences for the species.
The society has set up a TB Action Group and is also raising awareness of the issue on its website and in its membership magazine.
This comes in response to concerns many camelid owners are still not treating the disease as a serious threat and some have even tried to hide their TB problem.
“Pretending TB isn’t an issue, or worse still, intentionally covering up the presence of TB, will risk the health of all of our alpacas, and damage the future of the alpaca in the UK,” BAS said on its website.
It said it was there to offer advice and support to members who were worried they may have a problem and promised to treat information ‘sensitively’.
Agenda
BAS member Dianne Summers, from Cornwall, who lost the fifth alpaca to bTB from her herd in the space of a year, is largely responsible for pushing the issue up the society’s agenda.
Miss Summers, who will be a key figure on the action group and is arranging a series of meetings to provide information to camelid owners, welcomed BAS’s efforts.
She is already in touch with 15 owners of infected herds but feels this just the ‘tip of the iceberg’, if reports from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency and local knackermen are anything to go by.
She fears the problem is being compounded by the fact Defra cannot force camelid owners to test for TB and remove positive animals.
“It is frightening. Many alpaca owners don’t know there is a problem, so we must raise awareness,” she said.
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Readers' comments (1)
Anonymous | 23 October 2009 6:43 pm
How is it proposed to test alpacas as I understand there are problems with the existing skin test and particularly for alpacas. Even with cattle there are many that ae being slaughtered with no evidence of any TB on post mortem or tissue culture? Is the skin test too sensitive and picking up treatable condiitions such as liver fluke? Much is made of the fact that it misses infection too but how reliable is this? No proper scientific evidence to back up the reliability of the existing test is given and it would seem that the statistics used are based on old, out of date research and very limited trials. The same test has been used in the UK for cattle forover 50 years and yet TB is supposedly getting worse year on year and culling increases. Despite this very few clinical signs of TB are ever seen so the test may be giving a totally false impression of the situation in some areas. There are a lot of issues that need addressing and maybe vaccination is a way forward.
Back to the badgers - if the Welsh Assembly government press ahead with a cull that is not backed up by sound scientific evidence then what will be the repercussions to other sectors of the Welsh economy? The badger is a much loved indigenous species. Will the public decide to boycott the area involved or even Welsh produce with possibly devastating effects on the tourism and food industries?
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