Interesting article on Guardian website relating to bTB and alpacas, including comments from Dianne Summers who is believed to be the only person in the UK to have contracted bTb from her alpacas (www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/14/fears-alpacas-spread-bovine-tb?newsfeed=true).
 
Following extracts of great interest.
 
"Dianne Summers, a 51-year-old owner of 20 alpacas from Cornwall, warned that without the compulsory testing of alpacas bovine TB would "spread among our animals like wildfire".
 
"Alpacas are treated as low-risk animals in the transmission of bovine TB, but last month up to 500 alpacas were slaughtered by government vets after TB was detected on an alpaca farm in Burgess Hill, East Sussex. TB outbreaks have occurred in 58 alpaca herds – around 5% of the total – in the UK since 1999. There are more than 30,000 alpacas in Britain, including some which are regularly encountered by the public at country shows, and on open farms and walking trails."
 
"According to the Health Protection Agency, the risk to the public of catching bovine TB – which constitutes less than 1% of the total number of human TB cases in the UK – is extremely low. But guidance from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to farmers warns that, unlike cattle, camelids can spit a mixture of gastric contents and saliva, which could spread the disease to humans."
 
"Unlike cattle farmers, alpaca owners do not have to submit their animals for regular TB tests, and can even legally refuse to allow a suspect animal to be tested for the disease. There is also no legal requirement for alpacas to be registered or for their movement or sale to be recorded."
 
"According to Defra, the disease cannot be more closely monitored in alpacas until a reliable test is developed to detect bovine TB in the animals. The "skin" test used on cattle is not effective at detecting the disease in alpacas and Defra is working with the camelid industry – which raised £100,000 to fund research into the best bovine TB test for the animals – to develop a more effective test."
 
"Alpaca owners can refuse to have animals tested for TB but if the disease is detected via postmortem examinations they are legally obliged to report it. Defra can then insist that restrictions – including the slaughter of other animals – are enforced."

More than 400 alpacas have been in East Sussex after testing positive for tuberculosis. It is understood the animals were from land near near Haywards Heath. Further tests are continuing on the remaining animals. More could be killed and the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) continues to investigate the outbreak.
 
It is understood that the herd is owned by a US-based company Alpacas of America. It is believed to supply animals internationally to the UK, Australia, Canada and Switzerland. Alpacass from the Sussex herd are understood to have been sold within the UK and to mainland Europe.
Defra figures reveal 53 alpaca and llama herds had been confirmed with bTB in Britain up to September 2011 although there is no official record of the number of animals slaughtered as result of the disease as Defra’s official figures for ‘non-bovines’ only record the positive sample or samples that has confirmed the outbreak, not other animals subsequently slaughtered.
 
Currently requirements for TB testing of camelids is not routine or compulsory. They are not subject to the stringent movement controls that cattle are. The skin test is even more unreliable for camelids (according to vet, Gina Bromage, sensitivity is under 5%).
 
Defra has sought to justify the lack of restrictions on camelids by arguing that these animals aren’t thought to be major carriers in spreading the disease. However, as much of the research to date has been restricted to the badger no-one really knows how camelids are implicated in the disease spread.
 
A Defra spokesman said the Department was currently reviewing the control measures for non-bovines.
 
While there is no official compensation figure, it is understood that, in most cases, owners get £750 for each animal slaughtered because of bovine TB.

There are currently believed to be 1,500 alpaca owners. An estimated 35,000 animals are understood to be registered with the British Alpaca Society. However actual numbers for camelids are not known.

According to reports in Farmers Weekly Dianne Summers (Redruth, Cornwall), the person who has led the campaign regarding bovine TB and alpacas (she founded the Camelid TB Support & Research Group after losing one of her own alpacas to the disease almost four years ago), has contracted the disease herself. She was apparently diagnosed with human TB caused by Mycobacterium bovis last week, after doctors initially thought she was suffering from pneumonia. She is now taking a cocktail of drugs, including ethambutol, rifampicin, isoniazid and pyridoxine. Recovery is expected to take around nine months.
 
Dianne fell ill in February with symptoms of a severe common cold. Pneumonia was was initially suspected but later tests indicated she had contracted TB. She is waiting to find out if her disease is linked to her herd or to another as she has regularly visited alpaca herds as part of her campaign to help other owners.
 
Dianne lost her first alpaca in 2008. Seven further losses were confirmed in November 2009 and it is understood the herd is currently clear of the disease. We understand that bovine TB has affected around d 56 alpaca and llama herds in England and Wales as of 1 March 2012. However, Dianne says she believes bovine TB is more common in camelids in the UK than reports suggest. Testing is not routine for camelids. There are currently no movement restrictions for camelids either. They can be riddled with lesions but still look well.
 
According to the Health Protection Agency there were just 35 cases of human TB caused by the bovine form of TB in 2009, only 29 in 2008 and 28 in 2007. An agency spokesman said the risk of people contracting the disease from any livestock was 'very low', continuing with 'Human TB caused by Mycobacterium bovis counts for less than 1% of the total TB cases in the UK. It's a really tiny percentage".

Doing a bit of research on TB in camelids because a couple of contributors to the FW message board have been arguing that it is a very serious issue for these animals and that badgers must be culled as a result.
 
But now suddenly intrigued to see the way Defra respond to bTB in this sector is the way Rethink bTB (www.rehinkbtb.org) is suggesting we should respond to bTB in the cattle sector. The following is from Defra's current publication
 
'Bovine TB Eradication Programme for England - July 2011':
 
Chapter 4. TB in Non-Bovine Farmed Animals
TB in non-bovine farmed animals is rare and they do not appear to represent a significant reservoir of disease for other animals. The risks to human health and of spreading disease to cattle are low.
We are working with the relevant industry sectors to help them to improve the way TB is dealt with in non-bovine farmed animals (camelids, deer, goats, pigs and sheep) and to empower farmers to manage TB risks in their own herds.
 
We will improve TB surveillance, improving the identification of disease symptoms in carcases inspected in abattoirs; helping private vets to identify TB at post mortem and publishing improved statistics to better inform farmers about their true risk.
We will encourage better risk management, including a review of current arrangements for movement restrictions following a TB outbreak to see if these could be liberalised; encouraging the non-bovine sectors to investigate options for insurance; exploring the potential of vaccination and providing targeted information to those managing the highest risks.
We will work in partnership with each of the sectors’ representative bodies to help these industries become self regulating without unnecessary interference from Government, in line with our objectives on responsibility and cost sharing.
http://www.defra.gov.uk/publications/files/pb13601-bovinetb-eradication-programme-110719.pdf

Response from TB Team, Office of the Chief Veterinary Officer. Welsh Assembly Government (email dated 22/3/1)
 
I am sorry that you had difficulty in locating information on TB in non-bovines on the Welsh Assembly Government website. Up to-date Information on TB in non-bovines is published on the website under TB in other animals and for convenience I attach a link to that page which also has further details on the Tuberculosis (Wales) Order 2011 including a Question and Answer briefing.
 
http://new.wales.gov.uk/topics/environmentcountryside/ahw/disease/bovinetuberculosis/bovinetberadication/tbotheranimals/;jsessionid=YFx2NLhZJBxTQD3tZSd1FNBPgLZ2YrM1F08G18lTvykyMvvwgPgQ!1531853584?lang=en
 
We will also shortly be publishing on the Welsh Assembly Government website a summary of the consultation on TB in non-bovines.
 
 
 

The Welsh Assembly Government has pushed through the new legislation which it claims has the support of animal owners - although we know several owners were not happy with the proposals and made representations during the consultation period.
 
The new legislation is in the Tuberculosis (Wales) Order 2011. It is of relevance to all keepers of camelids (alpacas, llamas, guanacos, vicunas) goats and deer in Wales. The Order comes into force on 31 March 2011 and follows the consultation exercise which ended last November and forms part of the Welsh Assembly Government’s TB Eradication Programme.
 
The Order puts the prevention and management of incidents of bovine TB in camelids, goats and deer on a similar footing to the arrangements already in place for cattle. It does not introduce a requirement for regular testing or for Pre Movement Testing. However, it will introduce controls to help prevent the spread of disease and for compensation when these animals are slaughtered due to bovine TB. Key features include:
 
• Statutory compensation for animals removed as TB reactors
 
• A link between the responsibilities of animal keepers and compensation in order to encourage positive action by keepers to protect their animals from bovine TB
 
• A requirement that keepers keep a record of the movement of their animals and produce that record if required
 
According to WAG further details of the Order, including a Question and Answer briefing, as well as information on the TB Eradication Programme, are available on the Welsh Assembly Government website at www.wales.gov.uk/bovinetb. However, when we logged into this site (21/3/11) we were redirected to pages that were very out of date and could find none of the information referred to.

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According to Sept issue of Gwlad bovine Tb in other species 'is usually fairly mild and the animals are considered unlikely to pose any further risk of disease spread.'. It goes on to say such species are called 'dead end hosts'. This phrase is not further explained but presumably means they are spillover hosts.
 
So as Animal Health has included the above in their 'Leading the Fight Against TB' pages of Gwlad one does wonder why on earth yet more public money is being spent on this low risk area of bovine TB and involving yet more stress, time and expense for other stock owners!

According to the Farmers Guardian 26 August, DEFRA is facing calls to tighten up bovine TB (bTB) controls for non-bovine species in England, as the disease is apparently spreading far more rapidly in some species than official figures indicate.
 
The latest Defra statistics reveal the following cases for 2009
Farmed deer 1
Park deer 0 ( 1 case between Jan and June 2010)
Wild deer 18 (5 cases between Jan and June 2010)
Domestic cat 26 (what about feral cats?) (7 cases between Jan and June 2010)
Domestic dog 3 (1 case between Jan and June 2010)
Domestic pig 23 (13 cases between Jan and June 2010)
Alpaca 68 (28 cases between Jan and June 2010))
Sheep 5 (2 cases between Jan and June 2010)
Goat 0 (1 cases between Jan and June 2010)
 
Oddly, 16 members of an alpaca TB support group have reported the loss of 155 animals to the disease between them in the first seven months of this year. One owner alone has lost around 40 animals, making a mockery of the official Defra figure. Defra officials have told the group’s founder, Diane Summers, that 35 alpaca herds were under restriction in the middle of August, compared with 11 in July 2009. Her group therefore represents less than half of those currently affected.
 
“The Defra numbers are a joke. The reality is that we have absolutely no idea what the total losses are nationally,” Ms Summers said.
 
The reason for the discrepancy is that Defra’s figures only cover those animals where a culture or post mortem shows a positive result. Once TB has been confirmed in herds of non-bovine species, subsequent animals that test positive to the skin or blood tests ‘may not be examined’, Defra says. “Therefore not all animals removed for TB disease control purposes will be reported,” a note accompanying the statistics admits. Alpaca owners do not currently receive any compensation for their affected animals., although there is the proposal to change this in Wales. It is well know that the existing skin test is not a perfect test for cattle, it is even worse for alpacas.
 
The cost of a testing and compensation programme for domestic animals, in addition to the existing programme for cattle cannot be sustainable. A vaccination is now needed as a matter of urgency and without further delays.
 
 
ed in 28 alpacas in the first six months of the year.
 
However, 16 members of an alpaca TB support group have reported the loss of 155 animals to the disease between them in the first seven months of this year. One owner alone has lost around 40 animals, making a mockery of the official Defra figure.
 
Defra officials have told the group’s founder, Diane Summers, that 35 alpaca herds were under restriction in the middle of August, compared with 11 in July 2009. Her group therefore represents less than half of those currently affected.
 
“The Defra numbers are a joke. The reality is that we have absolutely no idea what the total losses are nationally,” Ms Summers said.
 
The reason for the discrepancy is that Defra’s figures only cover those animals where a culture or post mortem shows a positive result. Once TB has been confirmed in herds of non-bovine species, subsequent animals that test positive to the skin or blood tests ‘may not be examined’, Defra says.
 
“Therefore not all animals removed for TB disease control purposes will be reported,” a note accompanying the statistics admits.
 
This was confirmed by an irate owner of a heavily infected alpaca herd, from Devon, who told Farmers Guardian he had recently reported a dead animal to Animal Health to be told he would have to organise and pay for any post mortem, himself.
 
The official Defra figures show that 105 alpacas were examined in the first half of this year, of which just the 28 were confirmed as ‘positive’.
 
Ms Summers, from Cornwall, is concerned this under-reporting figures is contributing to a ‘lack urgency’ within Defra, Animal Health and the wider alpaca community in addressing what she believes is already a ‘horrendous’ problem.
 
She is campaigning for TB controls on camelids in England to put on the same footing as those applying to cattle, including routine testing, although she stressed that a more accurate test for alpacas was required.
 
She also wants steps taken to ensure that Animal Health is able to fully trace movements from restricted herds. This is in light of concerns that a lack of information being made available by at least infected herd has contributed to other breakdowns.
 
“Unless the rules are tightened up and some owners start behaving behave more responsibly, the problem is going to get worse and worse,” she said.
 
The British Alpaca Society (BAS) stressed that the problem was only affecting a minority of herds. BAS board member Philip O’Connor said the ‘vast majority’ of Britain’s 1,000 were clear of TB.
 
He said the society was ‘working tirelessly with Animal Health and Defra to address the issues and put together a plan to ‘control and eradicate TB in alpacas’.
 
Wales recently announced plans to tighten its TB controls in non-bovine species. A Defra spokesman said the Department was ‘publishing a consultation on measures to tackle bTB later this year, and will publish plans for a full package of measures in the Spring’.
 
TB is a notifiable disease in camelids and Animal Health has powers to restrict a herd’s movement. Defra ‘recommends’ that the best way to control the disease, where confirmed, is through slaughtering infected animals, with compensation paid to the owner.

www.wales.gov.uk/bovinetb
 
Consultation process underway. Bovine tuberculosis controls specific to cattle in Wales could soon apply to camelids, goats, and deer. The Welsh Assembly Government has launched a consultation on a draft legislative order to control TB in these three species.
 
It means that alpacas, guanacos, llamas and vicunas as well as goats and deer will be subject to controls similar to those on cattle and compensation will be paid to owners if they have to be slaughtered. But these new controls will not include a regular bovine TB testing regime nor a requirement for TB pre-movement testing. For owners who comply with the relevant controls, compensation of £1500 would be paid for female alpacas or stud alpacas and £750 for otheralpacas, guanacos, llamas or vicunas, while deer would attract a compensation payment of £400 and goats £100.
 
The Welsh Assembly Government introduced legislation in 2008 that created specific powers for inspectors to enter land and to obtain a warrant to test non-bovine animals for disease.
 
The consultation on the draft order runs for 12 weeks. The consultation document and information on how to respond is available on the Welsh Assembly Government website www.wales.gov.uk/bovinetb

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