Friday, December 10, 2021

APHA - results of cultures for alpaca Geronimo


 Today, Apha have  published the culture results  for the alpaca at the centre of a three year stand off  after several positive Enferplex TB tests.

We have covered the story of 'Geronimo'  in several posts  which started with this one  in 2018 


Apha (Animal and Plant Health Agency) explain in today's press release that:

"In September, APHA specialist vets completed an initial post-mortem examination of the animal, which revealed the presence of TB-like lesions. These have since been undergoing further testing to determine the source of infection.

APHA has today confirmed that it was not possible to culture bacteria from tissue samples taken at post-mortem examination, meaning that it will not be possible to carry out Whole Genome Sequencing in order to try to understand how the alpaca caught the disease. This does not mean the animal was free of bTB infection because it had previously twice tested positive using highly specific, validated and reliable tests."