Alpacas for Sale UK
Poultry for Sale UK
Parasites in Alpacas |
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| Date Added: November 30, 2010 04:20:17 PM | |
| Author: Rachel Hebditch | |
| Category: Breeders: Alpaca | |
Dr Stephen R. Purdy DVM, director of the Camelid Studies Programme at the University of Massachusetts, gave a series of lectures at the Elite Alpaca Auction weekend in Virginia. One of those was a ‘wet lab’ on the diagnosis and treatment of intestinal parasites in alpacas. So we got a chance to play with poo.
When we first started with alpacas fourteen years ago we were told to de-worm twice a year. Since then the thinking has changed because of the build up of resistance to a number of wormers. Instead selective de-worming is said to be the key to a healthy herd as you dilute the number of anthelmentic resistant worms. It is thought that 20% of the animals harbour 70 to 80% of the parasites.
Dr Purdy believes that prevention is the way forward. Overcrowding and poor sanitation must be addressed to overcome parasite infestations and to minimise the possibility for re-infection. In order to reduce anti-parasitic drug resistance we must reduce the number of animals de-wormed and reduce the number of times we de-worm them. We should avoid sub optimal nutrition, pasture contamination and overstocking. We should periodically check the effectiveness of de-wormers with fecal exams.
Caution was advised with de-worming medications as they are poisons and kill worms and worms are animals. Some are excreted in an active form and have harmful effects on the environment so their use should be minimised.
Samples were taken from the animals in the auction and then we mixed five ‘beans’ in a concentrated sugar solution and filtered out the big bits with a tea strainer. Rather smelly this but then our test tubes went off to the centrifuge and after a few minutes there was a slide each to view under the microscope. We found nematodirus, strongyle, E.mac and small coccidia and lots of things that looked a bit like parasites but were not. Air bubbles, pollen grains and plant hairs were the main culprits. By this time the assembled students were very excitable calling out to the rest of us to have a look every time they found something.
In America they have a problem with meningeal worm in some areas that results in animals usually being injected with Ivomec monthly from May to December. But other wormers are required for nematodirus, liver fluke, coccidia, tapeworms and whipworms.
But how many parasite eggs or oocysts in a fecal are significant? Strongyles – 25 or more per slide is significant if the animal has clinical signs. Nematodirus – any may be significant as a low shedder. Small coccidia – any in crias with diarrhea but adults or crias with good growth rates and no diarrhea may not need to be treated but cleanliness should be emphasised as this is a problem of overcrowding and reinfestation.
E.mac – this is the big one five times the size of a small coccidia oocyst that can result in fatalities although this is not common. Clinical signs are poor doer adults or young animals, transient or rare diarrhea, poor appetite, weakness, swallowing problems, low blood protein. But Dr Purdy says that most E.mac infections are not symptomatic that animals in good body condition with normal faeces can have high numbers.
The message again and again was that you may not be able to, or indeed want to eliminate all the parasites in your animals. If the animals have no sign of clinical disease, for example they are not thin, have no diarrhea and good growth rates, don’t treat as the continual use of drugs will make the overall problem worse.
Instead continually evaluate the parasite prevention programme – these are the bullet points.
Fecals, fecals, fecals Cleanliness – do not overcrowd Avoid stresses as much as possible Biosecurity – keep transient animals away from the resident herd Isolate show animals or new arrivals for at least two weeks and run fecals on them regardless of past medical history.
Article Submitted by Rachel Hebditch |
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