Well Dante arrived and the girls have gone to their new home in New Mexico.

Here is an interesting BVDV e-mail I received today:

As noted by Pat Long in an earlier e-mail, the Alpaca Research
Foundation (ARF) is funding two studies to look at BVDV along with some
financial help from the Mid-Atlantic Alpaca Association (MAPACA). These
studies will go a long way to define the epidemiology of BVDV in
alpacas, but they will not answer the question you are asking. That
being said there is a lot more to this than is generally appreciated. I
am in the fortuitous (or not) position of being in the cross-fire of all
the BVD goings-on, because I am responsible for keeping the confidential
census of documented PI's on the ARF website and mine is the only name,
e-mail address, and phone number attached to that page on the site. At
this instant there are 11 PI's listed. That number will increase to 14
as soon as the website is updated. However, I know of TWENTY more
cases which I cannot add to the census because I do not have permission
from the owners to do so. The states that have had documented PI's
include California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan,
Illinois,
New York, New Jersey, and Maine. There have also been PI's documented
in Alberta, Ontario, and New Brunswick. I know this is going to be
long-winded, but it is important to emphasize the scope of the problem,
and the best way to do that is to describe some clinical,
epidemiological, and psychological cases.
A New Jersey alpaca breeder bought a female alpaca with a cria by
her side at an auction in California. The cria failed to thrive, was
found to be a PI (documented by Ed Dubovi at Cornell), and was
euthenized. The original owner denies to this day that there could have
been a problem and the auction management just doesn't want to know
about it.
A Wisconsin alpaca breeder who has many animals boarding on his
farm sold a boarder (cria) to another Wisconsin farm for the owner and
got a phone call telling him that the cria had just been put down
because it was a PI. Before the PI status was discovered the cria had
been hospitalized at the University of Wisconsin vet school for
pneumonia, but was not checked for BVDV. When the animal got home it
did worse, was discovered to be a PI, and put down. On the boarding
farm every female on the farm except one is antibody positve. Of six
animals delivered in Sept 2005 five moms and their five crias are all
antibody positive. One antibody negative mom had an antibody negative
cria and both were PCR negative as well. Nine other pregnant females
were antibody positive. Four were aborted and the other five will be
watched very carefully, isolated at delivery and the crias will be
tested at birth (before nursing).
In September of 2004 a new breeder had her first delivery of a mom
who was pregnant when she bought her. The cria had agenesis of the
lung and a two-chambered heart and died instantly upon delivery
(obviously). The vet at the time stated that this looked like a BVDV
problem but at that time no one knew anything about this in alpacas. The
mom has recently been tested and is antibody positive. Subsequently
there have been two PI's at the farm where she bought her animals and
the entire herd at that farm is antibody positive. The cria with the
multiple malformations was no longer available for further analysis.
The biggest problem I see here is a willingness on the part of
breeders to confront this situation. Without co-operation from the
owners and breeders there is no way of defining the scope of the problem
or its significance. The oldest documented alpaca PI was 30 months and
was euthenized two months ago. We, therefore, have a problem that is at
least 44 months old. In that period of time with alpacas crossing back
and forth across the country for breeding, shows, and auctions there
could potentially be a huge number of PI's out there. This problem can
be eradicated by testing and biosecurity measures, but this will take a
concerted effort by the alpaca industry to do it. I'm sure the animals
will co-operate. The alternative is to become the mirror image of the
cattle industry with similar consequences. " THOSE WHO FORGET THE PAST
ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT."

Alan A. Rosenbloom, MD, FACP, FACE
Grants Administrator, Alpaca Research Foundation
Black Tulip Farms Alpacas
Siler City, NC


Posted by Adrian Stewart