Parasites in

Camelids
A Fact of Life
Anita Varga,
DVM, MS, DACVIM LA
Gold Coast Veterinary Service &
Consulting
Esparto, CA

Why should we care about parasites?

! One of the most common health issues in camelids
! Grazing animals cannot hide from parasites
!

A fact of life Dr. Cebra

! Can be a devastating & costly disease

! Production loss
! Cost of control
! Treatment cost

Who & where are your enemies?

Strongyles
(Cooperia, Nematodirus,
Trichostrongylus,
Lamanema)

Giardia,
Cryptosporidium,
Monezia,
Eimeria
(Coccidia)
Strongyles

Strongyle
Trichuris
(Whipworm)

Oesophagostumum

(Haemonchus, Ostertagia,
Teladorsagia, Trichostrongylus,
Camelostrongylus,
Marshallagia)

Overview
Intestinal Parasites
! Protozoa
!
Eimeria
! Giardia
!
Cryptosporidia
! Nematodes
! Strongyles
!

Cooperia, Haemonchus, Ostertagia Trichostrongylus,

Nematodirus
Trichuris (whipworm)

!
!

Cestodes
!

Monezia

Eimeria Coccidia
! 5 different species
! Species specific
! Small: E. punoensis, E. alpacae, E. lamae
! Large: E. macusaniensis, E. ivitaensis

Prepatent period 15- 21 days (small E.)

! Commonly seen up to 8 months of age

! Common cause of bloody diarrhea (small E.)
! Can progress to weakness, anorexia, dehydration & death

! Older animals resistant

Prepatent period: time between

infection with a parasite and
recovery of the infective form

E. macusaniensis
! Pre-patent period >30 days
! Can show clinical signs, before shedding
! Clinical signs
! Colic, weight loss, poor growth, ill thrift, weakness &

lethargy, +/- diarrhea, death

Eimeria Coccidia
! Do not sporulate & become infective until they have

spent 4-12 days or more outside the host

! Stress can trigger decreased immune response
! Transportation, shows, mixing of new animals, breeding
! New animals
! Eat in undesirable areas of the pasture
! More likely to eat off the ground at feeders

Prevention of Eimeria
! Hygienic facilities for young animals
! Separation of young crias from older ones & adults
! Removal of feces
! Strategic use of anti-coccidial drugs
! Outbreaks common during wet season
! At stressful situations
! Weaning, shearing, transportation

! Isolate clinical cases from other animals

! Treatment of unaffected animals from the same pen

Anti-coccidial drugs
!

Amprolium
! 10 mg/kg once daily for 5 days
! Intake might not be sufficient
! Individual animal dosing is preferred
! Longer treatment/overdose might lead to
polioencephalomalacia

! Sulfa antibiotics
! Both more effective against immature forms
!

Ponazuril & toltrazuril

!

5-20mg/kg, orally once a day for up to 3 days

Giardia
! Infection from contaminated water sources
! Can survive 3 months in H2O at 40F
! Affects small intestine
! Problem of larger farms
! Often outbreaks in wet season, or after heavy rain
! Contaminated puddles & standing water

Giardia
! Direct transmission from infected feces is possible
! Clinical signs
! Diarrhea, weight loss, some cases death

Crias up to 7 months show clinical problems

! Risk factors for shedding
! >10 yearlings
! Small pen sizes
! Large unit sizes of >20 animals

ZOONOTIC
potential!

Cryptosporidium
!

C. parvum & C. ubiquitum

Herd outbreaks of diarrhea in crias

!

Zoonotic!

Large herd w/large numbers of births

Younger crias <21 days of age

!
!

Clinical signs: diarrhea, weakness, failure to thirve

Relapses possible: autoinfection!

Infective, immediately after passage

Adults possible source of infection

No treatment available
!
!
!

Supportive care
Fluid support
Plasma

Strongyles
! Group of nematodes (roundworms) that occur in

ruminants
Cooperia, Nematodirus,
Trichostrongylus, Lamanema

Oesophagostumum

Haemonchus,
Ostertagia,
Teladorsagia,
Trichostrongylus,
Camelostrongylus,
Marshallagia

Strongyles
! Group of nematodes (roundworms) that occur in

ruminants
Cooperia, Nematodirus,
Trichostrongylus, Lamanema

H.O.T. complex

Oesophagostumum

Haemonchus,
Ostertagia,
Teladorsagia,
Trichostrongylus,
Camelostrongylus,
Marshallagia)

Strongyles
! Group of nematodes that occur in ruminants
Cooperia, Nematodirus,

Trichostrongylus, Lamanema
H.O.T. complex

Oesophagostumum

Haemonchus,
Ostertagia, Teladorsagia,
Trichostrongylus,
Camelostrongylus, Marshallagia)

Strongyles
! 2 main types of disease:
! 1) caused by larvae & adult worms after ingestion
! 2) caused by resumption of growth of arrested larvae
!

Hypobiosis

! Clinical signs
! Often unspecific
! Poor weight gain
! Ill thrift
! Progression to weakness, lethargy, anorexia
! Diarrhea less common

Haemonchus contortus
! Barber Pole Worm
! Blood sucking parasite
! L4 & adults can feed 0.05ml/worm/day
! Larvae start blood feeding - do not produce eggs
! Clinical signs
! Weakness, ill-thrift
! Severe anemia
! Oral mucous membrane color assessment may be a helpful

tool for diagnosing this parasite

!

FAMACHA Scoring

5000 adult worms a day: 250 ml = 8.5 oz

Nematodirus
! Larvae develop to L3 within the egg
! Protection against environmental factors
! Can overwinter
! Hatch in spring

! Low egg producer

! Clinical signs
! Poor growth
! Ill thrift
! +/- diarrhea

Non-Strongyles
!

Capillaria
!
!

Intermittent shedder
Low egg counts may in heavily parasitized camelids

Trichuris (whipworms)
!

Eggs require several weeks to months in environment to larvate

! Eggs may survive for years in soil

!
!

Clinically important
Variable shedders
! Affects colon
! Straining
! Diarrhea
! Blood feeder

Monezia (tapeworms)
!
!
!

Eggs are shed in the feces & easy to visualize

Eaten by soil mites
Camelid eats mite

Parasite load
! Every animal has different parasite load
! Higher parasite burden in animals
! w/decreased immunity
! Old, young, diseased

! w/higher exposure
!

Crias, outsider, dirt-eaters

10 % of the animals have

90% of the parasites

Herd Management
! Regular parasite screenings are recommended
! Monitor parasite load (FEC)
! Monitor development of anthelmintic resistance (FECRT)

! Frequency depends on the herd

! If no clinical signs
! Feces from 20% of animals should be checked
! Include animals that are not thriving, are thin or have a

history of heavy parasite burden

Fecal Egg Count FEC

! Severity of infection can be estimated
! Imperfect since low shedders or intermittent shedders might

be not correctly estimated

! Different detection methods available

! Centrifugation-sucrose flotation techniques yielded highest
proportion of +results for all parasites except coccidia (Cebra &
Stang et al. 2008)

! Most marked at low egg counts

! Not one test detects all parasites

! Some even miss certain parasites
It is not desired to have 0 parasites, trying to eradicate
all parasites with dewormers will increase risk of
development of parasite resistance

Parasite eggs

Fecal egg count methods can not

differentiate between strongyle type eggs

Fecal sample collection

!

Take fresh feces directly from the rectum of individual

animals

You need around 12 pellets

!

The more the better

Place in ziploc bag & remove air from the sample

Place in refrigerator

Dont store feces for more then 2 days before shipment

to the lab

Send sample in a sealed container on ice, preferably

over night

Fecal Egg Count Reduction Test

FECRT
! Test to check that dewormer is still effective
! FEC before deworming
! Repeat FEC on same animals 10 days layer
! Egg counts should decrease at least 90%
! If they dont: resistance is present
! Clinical response can be seen when treated parasitized

animals with as little as 30% efficacy

!

Do not trust response to therapy

FAMACHA
!

Pale scores are associated with

Haemonchus contortus burden
!
!

Can only detect signs of

anemia
Not helpful for detection of
non-blood sucking parasites

Treatment decision is based

color of the membrane

Validated for camelids

Training necessary

(www.scrpc.org)

Strategies to prevent &

reduce parasite numbers

Pasture!management
! Limit exposure of susceptible animals to large numbers

of larvae

Pasture management
! Watch stocking density
!

Recommendation for small ruminants is 5-7 animals per acre

! Leave pasture un-grazed for long period of time

!

Duration depends on climate/weather

! Rapid pasture rotation (every 4 days) followed by harvesting

the hay is ideal

! Provide access to browse.
! Worm larvae only migrate up to three inches on plants.
Keep grass length >8cm.

Pasture management
! Behavior beneficial for control
! Clean dung pile 2x daily
! Be aware of Hot spots
! Areas of hyper-transmission
! Feed hay from feeders
! Fence in wet, boggy areas
! Keep areas around water tanks dry
! Co-graze with horses or cattle
! Sheep, goats, & camelids share same internal parasites.
! Horses or cattle will consume small ruminant parasites,
and vice versa, with little detrimental effect

Pasture management
! Rotational grazing
! Temperate times of the year, pastures can be rested

for 3-6 months to allow infective larvae to die off to

safer levels.
! OLD DOGMA:
! Moving of animals to clean pasture after deworming
! Delays re-infection BUT it selects for resistant parasite

worms!

Nutrition
! Link between nutrition & parasite resistance
! Ingestion of high-quality metabolizable protein is

vital for the maintenance of immune function and

parasite resistance/resilience
! Herd problems with severe parasitism often

coincide with inadequate nutrition

! Submit forage & supplemental feed samples
! Consult with a veterinary nutritionist

Animal Management
! New Animal
! Quarantine for 30 days
! Area that can be cleaned easily
! Away from areas where the herd grazes

! Perform an FECRT
! Test-treat-test
! >90% reduction

! Heavily infected animal

! Test for mineral deficiencies or other disease problems

Anthelmintic management
! Break parasite life cycle
! Minimize reliance on anthelmintics
! Essential for clinical cases
! Anthelmintic resistance is an emerging problem
! Resistance might arise due to
! Gene flow in nematodes introduced with newly arrived animals
! Repeated exposure to sub-therapeutic drug concentrations
! Selection of preexisting resistant parasites by affording them a

competitive advantage over susceptible ones

Anthelmintic resistance
! Influenced by the total population exposed to drug
! Ensure that a population of susceptible nematodes are

in refugia at time of treatment dilution effect

! Strategies to combat resistance
! Extend interval between treatments
! Avoid unnecessary treatments
! Target treatments at animals that are predicted to be

most affected or contribute to pasture contaminaton

Anthelmintic management
! Give oral dewormers
! Absorption slower, stays in blood longer
! Do not use long acting preparations
! Fast animal over night before giving benzimidazoles (eg,

fenbendazole)

! Give benzimidazoles for 3 days

! Increased efficacy
! Use proper dose and route of administration
! Under-dosing leads to sub-therapeutic levels

Rule of thumb
Use 1.5 times sheep or cattle labeled dose

Common deowrmers
!

Fenbendazole 10-20 mg/kg, orally for 1- 3 days

Albendazole 10-20 mg/kg, once

! Dont give in early pregnancy

Thiabendazole 100 mg/kg, orally for 1-3 days

Ivermectin 0.3 mg/kg, orally once

Pyrantel pamoate 18-25 mg/kg, orally for 1-3 days

Consult with your veterinarian for

appropriate treatment.
Resource: Llama & Alpaca Care

Thank you for your attention!

Anita Varga, DVM, MS, DAVIM
Gold Coast Veterinary Service & Consulting
PO Box Esparto, CA 95627
anitavargadvm@gmail.com
www.goldcoastveterinaryservice.com