No not the animals the owners of course.

Right now you would think we were in the grip of the bubonic plague rather than a virus which appears to be serious/fatal for a very small number of affected animals and then almost certainly those who are in some compromised in terms of their immune system.

The follow map is the latest example where some well intentioned soul has plotted cases of infection onto a map of the USA.

What does this map show? well in my opinion it shows nothing at all.

You can't see the detail at this scale but essentially the map tries to show that all infections have originated from AOBA shows taking place all over the country.

So why do I think it is grossly misleading?

Firstly, I have no idea what the source of the information on here is but I guarantee it is not comprehensive and we have no idea what proportion of infected animals it may represent or even what the degree of error maybe.

Second, for each case of the infection the county is then colored in, so where a county is colored there could be one alpaca infected on one farm or 1,000 alpacas affected on 50 farms.

Thirdly, each reported case of the infection is linked to a show...so what does that mean that the infection springs to life spontaneously at the show? No of course not to come away infected someone else must take the infection to the show. And how can we even be certain that the show was the source?

Fourthly, this denies all other sources of infection such as breeding's, farm visits, auctions and the to and fro of your local veterinarian.

Fifthly, as these reportings are anecdotal there is no guarantee they are all from the same virus or related in anyway whatsoever.

Finally, so what? Assuming it is accuracte (which it isn't) what exactly are we meant to do now we have this chart?

I can't honestly think of one thing I can do differently as a result of seeing this information.

Frankly I am happier being un-informed than ill-informed as the latter can lead me into drawing false conclusions. A well intentioned initiative no doubt , but seriously misguided....

Look out STAMPEDE !!!!!!!!!