Latest news with #alpaca
BBC News
07-08-2025
- Lifestyle
- BBC News
BBC Farmwatch: Move from law to alpacas is a real change of pace
A lawyer turned farmer has diversified her alpaca farm to be able to stay afloat as "people aren't spending money like they were". Amy Saunders has been running Hideaway Farm in Dodford, near Daventry, Northamptonshire, for the last five years, but for the last year she has been working on turning it into a serious career rather than it being just a 23-acre site has 32 alpacas, each with its own name and personality. Speaking ahead of Farmwatch, Ms Saunders said that "women are the core of the team", and she loved the "uniqueness" of her mainly female-run farm. Despite not having had any farming experience, the single mother of three said she had been ready to move on from her corporate lifestyle and live a simpler life, closer to had suffered repeated burnout and felt her mental health was affected by being in an office all on building the farm had improved her happiness, she said. Ms Saunders said she had faced "so many different challenges" in the last five years, particularly with the changes in the alpaca industry. These have included the implications of Brexit, the surge in import prices and an increased focus on the quality and traceability of alpaca wool.A number of large alpaca breeders had closed down, meaning there were lots of high-quality alpacas for sale, and that put added pressure on small farms such as Hideaway. The farm offers a range of family-friendly glamping and camping experiences, silent discos and community volunteer days are among the things on offer, as well as alpaca-involved yoga, meditation and woodland farm also offers wellbeing programmes for both men and women. Ms Saunders has still not been able to pay herself regularly, but she insists she is driven by the joy and positive impact it has on the project, which is off-grid and has composting toilets, has had more than 8,000 trees planted over four years and does not use any pesticides on the farm or its four acres of ancient woodland. Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
ABC News
08-07-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Australia scientists closer to Hendra virus vaccine thanks to nanobodies from Chilean alpaca names Pedro
An unlikely hero has emerged in the fight against the "absolutely terrifying" Hendra virus, which has again reared its head in Southeast Queensland, killing a horse for the first time in three years. Hendra — named after the Brisbane suburb that saw its first outbreak in 1994 — is highly lethal to horses and humans. The hero, 12,000 kilometres away, is Pedro, an eight-year-old Chilean alpaca living in South America. "His story is quite unique," said Dr Ariel Isaacs, an infectious diseases virologist at the University of Queensland, who used the alpaca in his latest Hendra research breakthrough. "Pedro was gifted by a travelling Tibetan Buddhist master to the Universidad Austral de Chile when he came to visit their facility a few years ago," he said. Dr Isaacs' and Pedro's worlds collided as a matter of scientific serendipity. The researcher first collaborated with the Chilean university during the pandemic, while working on a therapy for COVID-19. "Nanobodies are very specialised antibodies that can neutralise some viruses with very high potency," Dr Isaacs said. Camelids, including alpacas and llamas, are some of the only species worldwide that have nanobodies. "If you introduce a part of the virus into an alpaca, it will produce an immune response — and then it well develop nanobodies against that target. And the Chileans had isolated a nanobody that worked against COVID," he said. The outcome exceeded expectations. "We were optimistic that this would work but it was even better than we can have predicted," Professor Daniel Watterson, Dr Isaacs' colleague at the University of Queensland, told 7.30. Professor Watterson oversees a team including Dr Isaacs which makes vaccines and therapies for emerging deadly viruses with pandemic potential. Professor Watterson said that once Pedro started making nanobodies "we isolated a particular one that had a really high affinity and ability to protect against the virus in-vitro". "Then we're able to test that in animal models and prove that protects against infection." Dr Isaacs described it as a "eureka moment", and the Chilean collaborators named the nanobody 'DS90', with the finer details published in the revered Nature Structural and Molecular Biology journal. Dr Isaacs said with it, they now have the foundation to produce a powerful therapy. "What we want to do is turn it into a therapeutic treatment that we could eventually give to a human who might be infected by these viruses," he said. "And so I'm optimistic and I'm hopeful that funding comes through and we're able to take this into the clinic. "That would be really amazing for me as an individual, and amazing for the community, and for the lab and our collaborators, and for anybody who's affected by these diseases." The University of Queenland's infectious disease experts are concerned the Henipaviruses will mutate and spillover. "Nipah virus, for example, is something that is now emerging across Asia, India and Bangladesh in particular," Professor Watterson told 7.30. There have been cases of possible human-to-human transmissions and "that's where you're seeing potential for really explosive outbreaks", he warned. There have been 68 Hendra outbreaks resulting in 110 horse deaths since its discovery in 1994, including one in Southeast Queensland last week — the case of a horse that wasn't vaccinated. The virus is carried by flying foxes and shed in their excrement, and commonly contracted by horses in contaminated pastures, feed or water. "It is currently estimated that 70 to 80 per cent of bats are seropositive for Hendra virus, and that means that sometime in their lifetime they've carried the virus," Dr Isaacs told 7.30. "That's the point of concern for us, because it means that it's still circulating within bat populations, and then that means it can still transmit to horses and the horses can transmit to people — and that can cause severe disease. Dr Peter Reid was the first veterinarian to treat horses carrying Hendra, before anyone knew what it was, back in September 1994. He described it as an "absolutely catastrophic, horrifying experience". "It's always traumatic coming out and doing an interview again," Dr Reid told 7.30. "But I can understand the interest, and if it has the benefit of reminding people how horrendous it was and the ways to stop it happening, that's what I'm all for." Dr Reid had been called to Williams Avenue in Hendra to attend Victory Lodge, the Brisbane stables of his client and friend, racehorse trainer Vic Rail. Several of Mr Rail's horses had fallen ill and they couldn't figure out why. "There were a lot of sick horses and a lot of dying horses I had to put out of their misery by injecting them, and some of them I couldn't inject because they were thrashing around so badly," Dr Reid recalled. "In the space of 36 hours, I think there were nine horses that died or I had to put down ... it was just catastrophic because I didn't know what was killing them. "Hendra virus attacks all organs in the body and particularly has focus on the lungs and the brain — so the horses are actually dying because they can't breathe because their lungs are filling up full of fluid. "We thought it could have been a poison or a toxin — certainly there's been no virus that had ever been known to medical or veterinary science that could do this." While detectives, health authorities, and scientists scrambled to figure out what had caused the animals' deaths, Mr Rail himself was struck down, showing symptoms similar to the horses. He's one of four people to have died from the disease since it was discovered — the human mortality rate stands at almost 60 per cent. "We know the best way to prevent people being infected to stop the transmission from fruit bats and horses to people, and that is by vaccinating the horses. "It's safe and effective, it breaks the cycle of transmission. "Don't think that it can't happen to you, because it can." Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here.
BBC News
29-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Shot alpaca returns to East Hatley home after seven weeks at vet
An alpaca that survived a gunshot wound to the face "is back where she belongs" after seven weeks of treatment at a veterinary hospital, its owner said. Four other alpacas were shot dead with a rifle in the attack at East Hatley, near Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire, in March and 15-year-old Phoebe was seriously injured. Dawn French, the animal's owner, said although the animal still needs daily treatment, she was much stronger and it was "good to have her home". A Cambridgeshire Police spokesperson said: "Following a thorough investigation, the case has been filed pending any new lines of inquiry coming to light." Ms French said she thinks the crime was "going to be one of life's unsolved mysteries"."They're so pretty, they're so inquisitive, they're so calm and placid - I can't understand why anyone would think of hurting them," she added. The animals, which had been kept in a field off Main Street for six years, were shot in the head with a rifle between 22 and 23 March.A ewe was also attacked by a dog and had to be put down. Initially it was believed Phoebe had a flesh wound. "She's had lots and lots of treatment to sort out the hole in her mouth and to try to get her weight up, as she wasn't able to eat properly - she's back where she belongs now," said Ms French. Faced by vet bills of £250 day, she has appealed for help with the treatment French was overwhelmed with the "phenomenal" support from friends "and complete strangers"."The words of love and encouragement and the donations, which covered the vet bill - we couldn't ask for anything more," she said. "She's still a little paralysed on the right hand side of her face, but hopefully that will improve in time."Ms French, who rents the field from a farm a couple of miles away from her smallholding at Tadlow, will wait a while until Phoebe has settled back into her home before deciding whether to build up the herd numbers once animal charity People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals previously offered a £2,500 reward to anyone who could assist the police investigation. Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Times
20-05-2025
- Health
- Times
Woman sues supermarket after ‘therapy alpaca' refused entry
When Abbygail-Nigella Borst goes shopping, she takes all the things she needs, including her 'therapy alpaca', Violet. Borst relies on the cloven-hoofed camelid to keep her calm in public and help alert her carer whenever she is about to have a panic attack. But there was no staying calm when Borst tried entering the IGA Everyday supermarket, a family-owned grocery chain, in the Tasmanian seaside town of Orford. Staff ordered Violet to leave because of concerns over food hygiene. They argued that alpacas are livestock and do not qualify as assistance animals, such as guide dogs, which are allowed full access to public facilities. Borst and her partner Desmond Gaull, who own a 50-acre farm training other alpacas to become therapy animals, filed a
