Post-Mortem report confirms Geronimo did NOT have TB

Deedaa
Thank you for your comments.
Yes, of course, you are right but Helen loved Geronimo just as we would love a cat or a dog.
She was fighting to the end for his LIFE and refused to assist in his slaughter. Also, she could never have foreseen that he would have been seized in the traumatic way he was.
Thank you, yes, we do need a better way of dealing with bTB and this is now Helen's concern for the future.

Blossoming
No, actually.

I would just like to thank anyone who has written a kind post about this situation.

I am shocked and saddened by some of the cruel comments.

Helen Mcdonald is just another human being who has suffered greatly and continues to grieve for the loss of her alpaca. She did what she thought was best for him, given a very traumatic situation.

She now continues to raise awareness around the disease, with the hope of improving the current bTB eradication policy.

Lets hope that when you are in a situation of loss and grief, people around you are kinder and more tolerant.

Helen Mcdonald never wanted to be in the glare of publicity; she was simply fighting for her animal's life. I hope I have someone like her supporting me, fighting my corner, if ever the time comes that I am thrust into a similar devastating situation.

Frizzywizzy

Trisher
The statement by Dr Christine Middlemiss is old news. Did you read what Dr. Bob Broadbent wrote? Have you read the full post-mortem report?
As Dr. Iain McGill said: 'Put another way, if Geronimo had died naturally, and this post-mortem had been carried out and yielded these same results, ANY Veterinary Surgeon or pathologist would state that there is no evidence of bTB at all.'

From TB Mythbuster
Failure to detect lesions of tuberculosis by post-mortem examination at the slaughterhouse, or to culture M.bovis in the laboratory, does not imply that a test reactor was not infected with bovine TB. Indeed, in the early stages of this disease it is not always possible to observe lesions during abattoir post mortem examination, and, due to the fastidious nature of this organism, it is very difficult to isolate it from tissue samples without visible lesions
In other words lack of evidence does not indicate the disease was never present. This is a complicated and difficult bacterium to identify and the best policy is always to proceed with the utmost caution.

TB is still a global pandemic, one person dies from it every 22 seconds. The measures taken in the UK means we are close to eradicating it, and I don’t want that jeopardised by an imported alpaca. I for one don’t want the return of this horrible disease that killed one of my family.