The owner of Geronimo the Alpaca has said a post-mortem examination revealed he did not have Bovine TB – something the chief veterinary officer disputes.
Geronimo was removed by the state and killed following a four-year battle over his TB status, on 31 August.
In a statement owner Helen Macdonald’s lawyers said: “As reviewed by Dr Iain McGill and Dr Bob Broadbent, the preliminary gross post-mortem findings are negative for visible lesions typical of Bovine Tuberculosis.
“For clarity there are no white or cream caseous, enlarged abscesses typical for bTB in alpacas whether in the lungs, bronchial, mediastinal or retropharyngeal lymph nodes.”
However, the chief veterinary officer denied these claims and insisted a “number of TB-like lesions were found” and are being further tested.
Dr Christine Middlemiss said: “These tests include the developing of bacteriological cultures from tissue samples which usually takes several months – we would expect to complete the full post-mortem and culture process by the end of the year.”
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