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NO VISIBLE LESIONS ON POST-MORTEM 

NO VISIBLE LESIONS ON POST-MORTEM

If an animal produces a positive response to a test for TB (a.k.a. a test “reactor”) and then shows no visible lesions (NVL) on Post Mortem, your first response may be to think that the test was wrong, assume that it was a false positive result and that your animal was unnecessarily culled.

However, we need to realize that there are other explanations.

If the test is very good at detecting early infection there might not yet have been time for lesions to develop. In that case, it’s a brilliant test, because it could then be a tool for removing animals before they are infectious, allowing us to prevent the spread of infection.

If the test detects an immune response to infection, rather than infection itself, this is still very useful: Once exposed to the tb bacterium an animal could pose a serious risk if it remains undetected. Although a proportion of animals which are exposed to infection may become immune, there’s no way of knowing which ones remain carriers with latent Tb infection. At least knowing which animals have been exposed, gives us a way to halt infection by not giving them the chance to start spreading it. In a herd where TB infection has been identified, by culture of M. bovis, the presumption has to be that all animals may have been exposed to the bacterium. The control of many infectious animal diseases, including bovine TB, is predicated on the early detection and removal of infected animals before they become infectious to other animals, allowing us to break the cycle of infection. Remember that our herds and neighbouring livestock and wildlife are at risk, and as this is a zoonosis, so are we.

The only way to find out whether the Gamma Interferon or Rapid Stat Pak test throw up real false positives, is to test a large number of animals which are not believed to have been exposed to TB, and see how many react to the test. If the BAS/BCL funded trial of the gamma interferon and Rapid Stat Pak tests didn’t go ahead, we will never know how good the tests are; we absolutely can not infer anything about their specificity (i.e. whether they really throw up false positives) from using them only in infected herds.

TB Research Fund.

TB Research Fund.
In conjunction with British Camelids Ltd, the British Alpaca Society has established a ring-fenced fund for research into bTB in camelids. This is in addition to the funding already given to Defra/VLA to carry out research to try to validate a number of bTB tests.
Anyone who wishes to make a donation to this vital work may do so by sending a cheque made payable to British Camelids Limited to the Association Secretary.

BTB IN CAMELIDS – NEW WEB SITE

A new website concerning this subject has just been launched. Follow the link at the end of this article, but please note British Camelids cannot accept any responsibility for the accuracy, views and opinions expressed in the new website.
British Camelids is part of the bTB eradication team working very closely with DEFRA, Animal Health and the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Scottish Assembly and Welsh Assembly and we have a continuing process of responding to the Welsh and DEFRA consultation documents.
www.alpacatb.org