liver fluke & barber pole worm

[sayyadina]

We're getting a new stud from out west, and I was wondering what the prevalence of these 2 parasites are out there. He's coming from Idaho, but the transporter will be picking up alpacas from other farms & states.

Regardless, he'll be in quarantine for at least 30 days, but I'd like to know if I should be on the lookout for these 2 parasites. Will these show up on a fecal, or are there other tests that need to be done?

 

[ksalvagno]

I'm in Ohio so I don't know. I would think that baberpole and liver fluke should show up on a fecal though.

 

[patandchickens]

Flukes in general (I don't know specifically about liver flukes but have no reason to think they're an exception) do not show up on fecals, because the eggs sink rather than float. There may well be other ways of testing for them, I dunno, but you should be aware of this peculiarity.

I thought barberpole worm was pretty much abundant everywhere?

Pat

 

[jodief100]

What part of Idaho? There is considerable variance in the climate across the state.

 

[sayyadina]

Northern Idaho, within 100 miles of the Canadian border.

Just found my answers to the testing information in 2 issues of Alpacas Magazine. Test for liver flukes is serum ELISA done at Oregon State or Colorado State. Oregon State does a special fecal that can find the barber pole worm.