Getting Started in AlpacasSome of the Basics You Will Need:
 |
A commitment to care for animals 365 days a year, good weather and bad (unless you plan to board them with another breeder) |
|
The financial means to purchase alpacas, plus ongoing expenses of management and marketing during your start-up period |
|
A rudimentary business plan outlining your objectives for conducting and growing your business (unless you just want a couple of alpacas as pets) |
|
A fenced pasture area for your alpacas, adequate to keep out most predators. |
|
A smaller enclosure for catching/ feeding/ handling alpacas |
|
Some type of shelter appropriate for your weather (barn, loafing shed, large sturdy tent, etc.) |
|
Forage and/or good grass hay |
|
Rake, shovel and wheelbarrow/cart for cleaning up poop (local hardware store) |
|
A mineral feed supplement suitable for your type of pasture/hay and area soil |
|
Water supply |
|
Well-fitted
halter & lead for each alpaca [We give these to Buyers,
as do many breeders] ($18-20) |
|
Toenail clippers for alpacas/llamas (about $16) |
|
Wormers such as Panacur or Safeguard paste ($7-8 per tube) and Corid for treatment of coccidiosis (consult a local vet to determine the requirements for your region) |
|
A First Aid kit containing vet wrap, antiseptic for cleaning wounds, animal thermometer, antibiotic cream (non-steroid), eye ointment |
|
Vet who knows something about camelids or is willing to learn |
|
A Mentor, hopefully the breeder from whom you are buying your alpacas |
|
A book about basic care, such as Caring for Llamas and Alpacas, by Claire Hoffman; (about $24) and as much information as you can gather from the Internet, libraries, etc. If you have joined AOBA (Alpaca Owners & Breeders Assoc.), they have an excellent library. |
|
A list of phone numbers for suppliers, including a professional shearer in your area |
|
IF you know how to give injections or are willing to learn, your vet can give you a list of supplies needed: syringes, needles, injectable wormer, vaccines, Epinephrine for dire emergencies, etc. |
Examples of possible mini-herds bought on time-payments
Herd #1 : Grays & Blacks
FRA Desert Sun’s Jasmine $17,900
MA Chantilly $19,500
Santa Lucia $13,500
_______
$50,900 minus 15% package discount = $43,265 at 20% down = $8,653 down
What you get for this: 3 crias within the next 90 days, plus 3 breedings valued at $9000, plus a potential herdsire from our list. [We would suggest Lancero, since he is out of gray & indefinite and not related to any of the females...plus he has an excellent fleece!]
By the end of 2008, you have a probable herd of 7 alpacas with excellent black/gray genetics and at the end of 2009, your herd grows to 10 (a value of about $5000/alpaca). And you are not paying stud fees, using your own male on the females you bought plus any female crias of breeding age.
Herd #2: White/ Beige
Arazzmatazz Peruvian Amaretto $18,500
FRA Peruvian Avita $ 17,500
My Peruvian Crystal $15,000
__________
$51,000 minus 15% package discount =$43,350 at 20% down = $8,670 down
What you get: 3 crias by mid-November, plus 3 breedings valued at $9000, plus a potential herdsire from our list. [For this group, we suggest FRA Peruvian Ferrari, a beige Caligula grandson. Ferrari is not related to any of these females and would be an excellent choice for your own herd plus possible income from the sale of breedings to him.]
By the end of 2008, you have a probable herd of 7 full-Peruvian alpacas from diverse bloodlines and all but Avita are eligible for rebreeds to Avanti, our top light herdsire. Avita can choose from Aladdin or Corsair, if you want to keep the full-Peruvian hallmark. As above, your herd grows potentially to 10 alpacas by the end of 2009 and you have a stud from the sought-after Caligula Accoyo bloodline.
Herd #3: Go for the Gold! An Aladdin package
Sunny Mesa’s McKenzie (white) $24,500
FRA Aladdin’s Jade (fawn) $17,500
FRA Safari (black) $19,500
________
$61,500 minus 15% = $52,275 at 20% down $10,455
What you get: an Augusto grand-daughter with an outstanding pedigree, bred to Aladdin (black); one of the best black females around, with a fleece that takes Blue whenever shown, also bred to Aladdin; and and an Aladdin daughter bred to My Peruvian Black Knight, one of the best young blacks in the USA. You’re herd growth will be a bit slower, since Jade is due 4/1/09, but the quality is top of the line. What male to add to this? We would look at FRA Magic’s Moreno, a Blue-ribbon brown out of 2 grays, or Ferrari from the Caligula line.
Check back on this page for updates of articles about husbandry and a listing of resources for supplies, medicines, books, etc.
Please
read this through to the end! It contains information you need to know.
BVD
in Alpacas :Our
BVD Story, by Lucy & Charles Farrar
After getting that fateful phone call, we spent the weekend reading
everything we could find on the web via googling “BVD in alpacas”
including Nancy Carr’s excellent “Detective Story”. Our
stud service records showed that there were only 5 females breeding
at our farm in October & November of 2004: 2 of ours, 2 from the other
farm that had sold the female to NY, and a female with cria from
another front range farm, here only for about 10 days. A phone call
revealed that this particular cria had become unthrifty and died at about
7 months old. The other "outside" female did not get pregnant,
but tested positive for BVD antibodies and later produced a healthy non-PI
cria. Our two females both had premature crias on Aug.27 (Sandman) and
Sept.5 (Snowman) that were low birth weight, with intermittent runny noses
and eyes, strange suri-like fleece for huacaya out of well-crimped
parents, and in general were "just not right". Sandman had
an incompetent immune system and fit
On Dec. 14, reports came back on Sandman as positively a PI
[Persistently infected] and 14 of the 15 of our herd sample tested positive
for antibodies on the serum neutralization [SN] test. Our herd and other
females here for breeding had been exposed to Sandman over a 100 day
period. Subsequent tests were positive on most of our herd and Snowman was
determined to be a PI also. We began the very heart-rending task of
calling all our 2005 breeding clients, informing them of their alpaca’s
exposure, offering to pay for tests on their alpacas that were at our farm
and replace their breeding. We also called those farms to which we had
sold alpacas or sent alpacas for breeding, offering the same testing for
those alpacas even though little risk was involved since we could pinpoint
the initial exposure to a 10-day period in 2004 in the female pasture and
the active disease is very short-lived.
Lest you think this is just a Colorado problem, the
"outside" female that had the presumed PI cria at her side in
2004 was bought as a bred female from a ranch in Oregon and if you look on
the ARF website at their census, nine PI's were listed on there as of
today [last update 11/15/05] not including Steve's 2 and our 2. Subsequent
tests at the farm that brought the presumed PI and dam for breeding have
revealed another PI from a dam purchased from the same farm in
Charles began making graphs of all our 21 females that are
pregnant, determining their vulnerability for producing a PI cria in 2006.
We began making bio-security changes at our farm, pushing construction on
an already planned doubling of our barn size to make stalls for our
herdsires nearer the breeding females. This leaves our auxiliary barn,
which is over 100 feet from the main barn, as an isolation barn for
our near-term females that are at risk of producing PIs. We'll have foot
baths for helpers going into that area, lots of hand sanitization gel
pumps, and will not allow visitors in that area. We have offered to bring
back "outside" bred females for birthing if their owners do not
have isolation capability. Blood will be drawn on all crias at birth
before they nurse, so the dam's antibodies will not contaminate the
sample. CSU will perform the PCR tests at their lab and get the results
back to us ASAP. Any PI cria will be put down immediately. A month has
passed since Sandman was put down and our farm is now free from active
infection and by the end of 2006 will be PI-free as well, probably one of
the safest farms around with a herd testing positive to antibodies.
Meanwhile, we'll require any cria accompanying a dam for breeding to be
tested as PCR negative to prove it is not PI prior to coming on our farm.
We'll have to make some difficult decisions, but will get through this
somehow.
Why are we going public on this? It is imperative that breeders
take BVD seriously. It probably has been around for a long time [think of
all those stillbirths, abortions, crias that died from failure to thrive,
etc.] and we were just not testing for it or performing the correct
tests because most vets felt that alpacas were not vulnerable to BVD. [See
www.claacanada.com
and www.alpacaresearchfoundation.org
for testing protocol.] We have found that most cases of BVD infection in
alpacas are sub-clinical and do not involve diarrhea or any other symptom.
There was no diarrhea on our farm, no evidence of other sickness or being
“off feed” and Sandman was producing normal pellets even on the day we
put him down.
Five weeks ago all we knew about BVD was from posts on Alpacasite
and the first question from most of our customers was “What’s BVD?”
In September we had BVD tests performed at CSU on a
stillborn as part of the necropsy. That case just happened to be BVD
negative and we thought we didn't have a BVD problem. Wrong! That dam
was absent during our 2004 exposure. Please educate yourselves, get
samples from your herd tested to see if you have an exposure, and consider
some strict bio-security measures if you have alpacas coming to your farm
to breed. The biggest threat of exposure is from a PI cria and PI crias
can look entirely normal and possibly grow to adulthood. [Ours just
happened to look different from our usual healthy crias.] In cattle,
93% of all BVD infections originate with PI calves because they continue
to shed billions of viruses every day as long as they live. PI crias have
to be eliminated. That is the secret to controlling this disease before it
becomes a national epidemic.
And please, please report any cases of PIs to ARF for
their census. I understand that there are a lot of known cases that are
not on the census because owners would not allow them to be posted even
anonymously by region! [Are we that market-driven in this industry???] ARF
has two BVD projects going: one at
Snowman is being kept alive in isolation and we have offered to
donate him to a research projects. If ARF doesn’t need him, CSU may take
Snowman and another PI from this area if funding can be found to take
advantage of this research opportunity like Tufts is having with Copper
Penny and Tag from Steve's farm.
In addition to the articles in the 2 most recent Alpacas
Magazines and articles published in 2005 in Camelid Quarterly,
we found the following links valuable in learning about BVD:
www.diaglab.vet.cornell.edu/issues/alpacas.asp
www.claacanada.com
[Articles]
www.alpacaresearchfoundation.org
The following was prepared by Dr. Rob Callan at CSU for distribution regarding BVD testing and control:
BVDV Testing and Control Practices for Alpaca Herds
1. To identify exposed herds.
2. To identify and eliminate any persistently infected animals from the herd.
3. To identify non-PI animals and certify them as safe for travel to breeding farms, shows, and sale.
4. To minimize introduction and spread of BVDV in a herd.
·
Identify Seropositive Animals
o
Select animals with a greater likelihood of exposure to BVDV
§
Females that have gone to another farm for breeding
§
Animals that attend shows
§
Animals exposed to visiting animals (i.e. exposed to
breeding animals and their crias from other farms)
§
Recommend screening at least 10% of your animals or a
minimum of 15 animals.
o
Collect Blood Samples (serum, red top tubes)
o
Submit for BVDV Serum Neutralization Test
§
Detects
antibodies to BVDV
§
Any positive tests indicate exposure to BVDV
§
Test costs about $5.00 per sample
§
Currently, testing for BVDV Type 1 is sufficient
·
If you have any animals with a measurable BVDV titer (i.e.
any titer ≥8) then you have evidence of BVDV exposure in your herd.
o
This indicates that you MAY
have a PERSISTENTLY INFECTED
(PI) animal in your herd.
o
Alternatively, the positive animals may have been exposed at
another herd or a show.
o
If any of these positive animals are pregnant, they may now
be carrying crias that will be born persistently infected.
Identifying
PI Animals
|
Test |
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
|
Whole Blood PCR ($30, 1-2 weeks) |
High Sensitiviy, No maternal antibody interference |
May pick up acutely infected animals. Cost |
|
Whole Blood Virus Isolation ($25, 3 weeks) |
Sensitive, No maternal antibody interference |
May pick up acutely infected animals. Cost. Time |
|
Skin
Immunohistochemistry (IHC, $2-20 per sample, 1 week, |
Sensitive, simple to collect sample, inexpensive for multiple numbers, rarely detects acute infections |
Leaves a skin defect (ear notch, axila), samples stored and sent in formalin, send within 1 week of collection |
|
Antigen Capture ELISA–Skin ($5-10, 1 week) |
Simple to collect sample, inexpensive, rarely detects acute infections. |
Lower sensitivity, some false negatives. Leaves a skin defect (ear notch) |
|
Antigen Capture ELISA–Serum ($5-10) |
Inexpensive, rarely detects acute infections. |
Lower sensitivity, some false negatives, not suitable for crias <6 months due to maternal antibody interference |
o
High Sensitivity, very few false negatives
o
No interference in crias from maternal antibody
o
Immediately send sample refrigerated on ice
o
Positive Test Result Interpretation
§
Persistently Infected or Acutely Infected
§
Retest after 3 weeks, acutely infected animals should be PCR
negative at that time and persistently infected animals will continue to
be positive.
·
Testing Strategy
o
PI Test all animals under 12 months of age independent of
individual animal serology
o
In herds with known exposure (i.e. at least 1 seropositive
animal), test any adult animals with unknown titers or BVDV titers <32.
§
Currently the oldest known PI alpaca is 30 months.
You may consider restricting PI testing to animals born AFTER
JANUARY 1, 2003. Animals
born before this date are perhaps less likely to be PI.
o
Continue testing ALL crias at birth by PCR
§
Isolate crias and dams from other pregnant animals until
test results are know.
§
A negative cria means the cria, her dam, and all previous
maternal ancestors are non-PI.
§
A positive cria is likely a PI
·
The cria should either be euthanized (to prevent
transmission to other animals) or isolated and retested in >3 weeks as
indicated above.
·
The dam may be a PI and should also be tested by PCR if BVDV
titer is unknown or <32.
· Stillborn or aborted fetuses can be tested by several methods. Two recommended methods are:
o
Skin
Immunohistochemistry – Obtain a skin sample (about 1x1cm, ear notch
or axila) and place in 10% buffered formalin.
Submit within 7 days to a diagnostic lab that will perform BVDV IHC
(
o Skin PCR – Obtain a skin sample (about 1x1 cm) and place in a clean container (i.e. red top blood tube). Ship immediately on ice to a lab that will perform BVDV PCR.
· After collecting the skin sample, the fetus can be frozen and used for neonatal classes if desired.
·
Do not allow animals into your herd without confirmation of
non-PI status.
·
Isolate new animals from remaining herd for at least 3
weeks.
o
Isolation area should be at least 10 meters from any
pregnant females.
·
Utilize breeding farms with an active BVDV control program
that only accept confirmed non-PI dams and crias from herds with an active
BVDV control program.
·
Utilize shippers that are willing to ship only animals with
confirmed non-PI BVDV status.
·
Restrict as best as possible contact with other animals of
undetermined BVDV status at shows and other events.
o
Direct contact is the primary means of transmission.
o
BVDV can spread by aerosol at distances of at least 10 feet.
o
BVDV can be spread by items in contact with infected animals
such as feeders, waterers, equipment, clothing, shoes, etc.
o
BVDV is susceptible to many disinfectants including regular
detergents (soap and water), bleach, povidone iodine, chlorhexidine, etc.
300 West Drake
Fort Collins, CO 80523
Phone: (970) 297-1281
Fax: (970) 297-0320
www.dlab.colostate.edu/
for forms to accompany samples
For
Skin Immunihistochemistry (IHC) Tests
1800
Phone:
(785)532-5650
FAX:
(785)532-4481
http://www.vet.k-state.edu/depts/dmp/service/index.htm
University of Nebraska
Fair St.
Phone: 402 472-1434
Fax: 402 472-3094
E mail: vdc2@unl.edu
http://vbms.unl.edu/nvdlssbvd.shtml
| Charles
& Lucy Farrar, owners P.O. Box 9 Monument, CO 80132 ph. 719-488-0986 fax 719-481-2153 |
Contact us to see a sampling of our fleeces or for more information on our animals. Visit us soon! Phone 719-488-0986 for an appointment..... |
Home | Females
for Sale | Males for Sale | FRA
Herdsires | Breeding Herd |
Fiber Info | Getting
Started | Ask for Information