this is what is said:
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Geronimo the alpaca did have tuberculosis, the Government has insisted, despite an inconclusive post-mortem.
On Friday, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced that the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) had completed its culture testing work for the alpaca, which failed to provide conclusive findings about the source of the animal's bovine TB.
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, but on Friday, Defra confirmed that it was not possible to culture bacteria from the tissue samples - meaning that it will not be possible to carry out sequencing to establish how the alpaca caught the disease.
A spokesman told The Telegraph: "The results of these further post-mortem tests do not show he was free from infection.
"The purpose of these tests was not to confirm whether infection was present or to validate previous test results, but instead to identify which strain of the disease is present and help inform decisions on testing other animals in the herd.
"And these results are not unusual – as Defra have made clear throughout the process, it’s not always possible to culture bacteria from tissue samples from an infected animal, particularly if the lesions are not at an advanced stage."
But these tests have been disputed by the animal's supporters.
Helen Macdonald, Geronimo’s owner, has long maintained Geronimo never had the disease, and she is understood to be considering suing the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Defra said it wasn't aware of any legal challenges.
She said tests produced false positives and waged a string of unsuccessful legal battles to try to get the alpaca tested again, but Defra insisted the probability of a false positive result was just 0.34 percent.
The animal was put down in August despite protesters descending upon Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire, in a bid to stop Geronimo being hauled away to its death.
Dominic Dyer, who had campaigned alongside Ms Macdonald to save Geronimo, said the post-mortem examination results showed the animal did not have bovine TB.
"We finally got the full post-mortem results and it's clear this animal did not have TB," he said.
"This case shows the level of incompetence, negligence and deceit on TB policy within Defra that goes back decades.
"Helen was a scapegoat. The poor alpaca Geronimo was killed for absolutely nothing in the most brutal disgusting way in front of the world's media.
"This is a shameful, shameful incident when it comes to the environment policy and TB policy in this country.
"It's about time that George Eustice took responsibility, and the Prime Minister firstly apologise to Helen, compensated her for all the pain and suffering she's gone through and make sure that this never happens again."
In September, a statement released by Ms Macdonald’s lawyers said that preliminary findings from a post-mortem examination of Geronimo showed it “did not have bovine tuberculosis”.
It is understood Government lawyers sent Ms Macdonald (pictured below) a two-page report setting out the findings, which she gave to two vets familiar with Geronimo’s case to review.
“The preliminary gross post mortem findings are negative for visible lesions typical of Bovine Tuberculosis,” the statement said.
“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.”
The announcement immediately triggered a war of words with