Animal culling is not a topic I find easy to discuss. Researching for this article has been very upsetting, but it’s for that reason that I need to write down my concerns. In England, it is legal to cull animals which have tested positive for bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in order to curb the spread of the disease. Culling in England hit the news recently because of a controversy surrounding Geronimo the Alpaca. Born in New Zealand, Geronimo tested negative for bTB four times before being imported to the UK by Helen MacDonald. There, he tested positive twice. The British tests for bTB work differently to the tests used in New Zealand, and according to Iain McGill, a vet and TB researcher, Geronimo tested positive only because he had been micro-vaccinated before his tests, causing a high level of antibodies and thus a false-positive result. In spite of this, the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs sanctioned Geronimo’s destruction. Geronimo the Alpaca - PA Media...
Current affairs according to a European Politics graduate