Yesterday, a Press Statement was released to state that a new detailed DEFRA Post-Mortem report confirmed that Geronimo did not have Bovine TB (bTB.)
'The pathology report, which followed the preliminary post-mortem findings provided to Helen Mcdonald on the 3rd September, clearly showed that the Government's execution warrant relied on a flawed testing protocol.'
Dr. Bob Broadbent, Geronimo's veterinary surgeon, said that NONE of the lesions identified at post-mortem were pathognomic (specifically indicative) of bTB. Defra's expert pathologist refers to granulomas which have been classified on the TB50 form as 'atypical' of TB. Despite DEFRA claiming on the 8th September that all of the lesions are 'TB-like', the post-mortem report expressly RULES OUT any mycobacterial infection such as bTB relating to the lesions in the neck area. He also said that there are absolutely no lesions in the lungs or respiratory tract, which is the most common place you would expect to find lesions in an animal infected with bTB.
The press Statement goes on to say that it is also now clear that Geronimo met a brutal death. Red blood cells were found in the alveoli and the bronchioles. There should have been no red blood cells in Geronimo's lungs and so this strongly indicates that he suffered a traumatic death. We all saw the brutal way he was taken from the farm, when he was tied in the horsebox in a way that was likely to restrict his breathing. Alpaca's also need to lie down when being transported, but the rope around his nose and chin was too short to allow him to do this.
The tragic thing is that other camelid and cattle farmers will find themselves in a similar position to Helen Mcdonald and Geronimo as the Government's bTB policy has not changed.
I'm supporting her crowd funding appeal and also a petition on change.org calling for a public inquiry into the control of bovine TB. There have been too many lives lost already.
