Caseous lymphadenitis in alpacas

[julie follansbee]

What do you know about Caseous Lymphadenitis in alpacas? Seems the farm where we had our alpacas sheared has an alpaca that tested positive.
Their vet called us and told us to be on the lookout for abnormal swellng in the neck, shoulders and head areas. He said he really didn't know much about it in alpacas and that he was learning too but that he knows it is highly contagious in sheep and goats. I was apprehensive about taking our animals to this farm because they do have goats there also and all of our research about alpacas seemed to discourage housing alpacas and goats together. We couldn't get the shearer to come to us because we only have 7 animals. The people who own the farm are so sweet and didn't realize this animal was infected..bu the cyst burst during shearing.

[rose@almapark.com]

Julie - CL is highly infectious and the pus from the cyst when it bursts in goats (if dripped on the ground) should be burned etc. or other goats can very readily become infected. I used to raise goats and the trick is to NOT let it burst but have a vet drain it etc. We had only 1 case of CL in a goat and thank goodness we noticed it, and she was in a q-tine area.

I have never heard of CL in alpacas - but I would suspect they have CL in their goat herd and should separate the goats and alpacas immediately and they need to be diligent in treating the CL in goats when they see an abscess and NOT let it burst! They now also need to be diligent in checking alpacas - shorn alpacas should make it easier.

Was the cyst that burst cleaned up properly? How did it burst - when the blades went over the area? If so - did the shearer disinfect his blades ?

Here is a good article on CL in goats.
http://www.goatworld.com/articles/cl/cl3.shtml

Rose

[docdennis]

I have seen an outbreak in one herd. It can cause some nasty and rather severe infections. There isn't a whole lot you can do other than watch for development of skin infection or abscesses.

I hope that the shearer had already done your animals before doing the one with the CL abscess.

If he did yours after, I hope he disinfected himself, the clippers, and the blades thoroughly.

Dennis Thibeault, DVM

[julie follansbee]

Unfortunately, mine were shorn after the absess burst. The vet is trying to contact the shearer to get more information, but I can tell you that it was just cleaned up with towels. I think he applied some betadine to the area on the animal. He was very concerned too because he had never seen anything like it in his shearing experience and told the owners to call their vet immediately. I'm just sick about this...I try to be very concientious of cleanliness and our animals aren't moved around to shows, though we were just getting ready to have 2 of them shipped out and rebred to a herdsire out west...advice on that? I really appreciate this community and getting your feedback!

[rose@almapark.com]

Julie - my personal advice would be not to ship out the girls to be re-bred. I have to be honest (as I said - I used to raise goats as well), if I knew your girls were potentially exposed to CL, I would not allow them on my farm :(

There are blood tests that can be done to test for CL presence. I am not sure what the incubation period is (meaning how long it will show up after exposure ) - but talk to your vet and I would also try to reach Dr. Vickler, from Cornell. There was a post on AN (from 2008) that stated he has seen CL in alpacas and is doing research on the subject. You or your vet may try to contact him or at least Cornell. You vet can also reach out to Dr Evans or Dr Purdy to see if they have any info as well. Once you know when you can get a blood test done, I would do it on all the pacas. It will definitely put your mind at ease as well.

I would also tell the farm where you sheared that the animal that had the cyst burst NEEDS medical attention immediately, and that they should have all their alpacas tested for CL as well.

I am not being an alarmist - but I know in the goat world, people are very careful with CL. When I was breeding goats, many breeders (including me) said "CL free herd", similar to what we do with BVD.

Keep an eye on your alpacas and please let us know if you need more info - always feel free to call me.

I would make sure that you can secure a shearer for next year or learn to do it yourself. Your neighbor may be very nice, but I would not take the risk!!

Rose

[julie follansbee]

Thanks Rose, I appreciate your advice. I also had come to the conclusion that we are kind of in quarantine myself and that everyone would be staying put for a while! :(
The infected animal on our friends' farm was treated and we found out because the vet himself called us to let us know. I think I will pass along the names of Dr. Purdy and Dr. Evans to him. I will definitely follow up with the blood tests.
As for shearing them myself...I'll be working on an alternative plan for next year!

[OHL]

Julie,
CL is, as Rose said, highly contageous. That said, there needs to be contact between the bacteria from the abscess and either an open wound or mucous membranes for transmission to occur. CL affects alpacas differently than sheep and goats and has a much higher mortality rate due to internal abscesses.

As a basic overview, CL is a bacterial disease that causes abscesses in the infected animal. It is not treatable with antibiotics and essentially the only treatment is prevention. Exposed animals (at least with sheep/goats) will not show positive titers on blood testing for 3-6 months in most cases. Infected animals are not contageous unless they have an active abscess. Abscesses in goats are typically external around the jaw, shoulder, flank and rear leg (at the lymph nodes) and are walled off from the body until they rupture. In sheep, internal abscesses are much more prevalent and can appear in the lungs, liver, kidneys, digestive tract and in and around other internal organs. From what I understand, in alpacas, CL acts more like it does in sheep and external abscesses are often not seen at all, just animals who are unthrifty and die despite treatment. On necropsy, abscesses are usually widely spread.

Ideally, the area where the abscess was ruptured should have been disinfected well with novalsan/iodine and completely dry before shearing continued. Also, the shearer should have changed his blades and either switched to another shearing machine or thoroughly disinfected it with novalsan/iodine. All of that said, I would say that the chances of your animals becoming infected from minimal exposure like you are describing (unless the same blades were used and nicked one of your alpacas almost immediately after the abscess was ruptured) is small.

Realistically, as long as there is not CL bacteria in their fiber, there is no way for your animals to transmit CL to another animal for several weeks/months, even if they were infected. With as little information as we have about the incubation period in alpacas, I would still plan not to send them anywhere for breeding, but a drive-by breeding would be fine as long as there were not active abscesses. Not to say that is what you want to do, just a statement of the risk levels involved either way.

As far as the animal whose abscess was ruptured during shearing, there is no medical treatment that will get rid of CL and that animal will continue to be a carrier and continue to develop abscesses both internally and externally, potentially infecting other animals every time another abscess ruptures.

We raise Boer goats and one of our selling points is that our herd is CL free. We test all of our animals and use that both as a marketing tool and for the health of our own animals. However, I know there are folks who raise goats (and sheep) who feel CL is an insignificant problem and they don't worry about it or educate new breeders about it. As Rose said, the situation is somewhat similar to BVD in alpacas, except that goats aren't required to be tested for any reason, including showing.

For testing, I would (and do) use UC Davis. They use SHI as opposed to ELISA testing and the test is more specific and more accurate. You or your vet can send blood to be tested and have answers the same week. Again, there is an incubation period, so I would likely test at 2 months, 4 months 6 months and 12 months after exposure if they were my animals.

Hope this helps and please let me know if there is anything I can do to help. Good luck!

[Marty McGee Bennett]

I have not said anything about this because I KNEW nothing BUT boy now I do! I cannot thank you both enough for being so responsive and detailed and helpful about so many things on the forum. I feel left out :) SO if there is treatment to be done maybe I can be somewhat helpful on how to balance the animals for treatment. :D
Really and truly you are both gems!

[julie follansbee]

Thanks so much Sara..you clarified how it is transmitted. Luckily our animals have no open wounds or any wounds for that matter..though maybe a nipped toenail? I was apprehensive about publicly posting this, but I guess it is an opportunity for everyone to learn about this.
When you say about bacteria in the fiber...should I bathe them? They were laying on the same mat and I know that it was only swept between animals and I'm not sure how many were shorn before mine..maybe ten?
Should I not use the fiber that I sheared for yarn?
It's great to have such a wonderful resource available as the guild.
Thanks to you all!

[OHL]

Julie,
Realistically, I expect your risk level is quite low if there were 10 animals shorn between the animal with the abscess and yours. I personally would not worry about using the fiber for the same reason.

As far as bathing - I guess it depends on how long it's been since shearing. If it was the same day, I'd say go for it and use a diluted novalsan solution. At this point, if there was any bacteria on your animals, it has probably dried and been brushed off.

I would say the testing is a good idea for your peace of mind. If none of them sero-convert to positive within a year, I'd expect you dodged the bullet, so to speak.

Not a vet, but I do have a fair amount of research into the subject.

Sara

[rose@almapark.com]

Sara - Thank you!! - it has been some time since I had goats on the farm and I was HOPING you would read and respond :D

Marty - that is what the forum is for!!! And anytime you are in NJ - please stop by my place to balance for shots and toenails - lol :p

Julie - good luck - and let us know if you need anything !! I REALLY appreciate that you posted this on the forum ! I think too many people have been silent about "bad things" and we should all share and learn together - that is the only way we will grow as an industry and learn to fight the bad stuff. When BVD first came about in alpacas - many farms were silent and it spread rapidly because of that -- I was lucky that I had a closed herd at the time- but many were not! We need to be more open as an industry for things we really cannot control like disease!

As far as the fiber - I agree with Sara - that there is a low risk, but do know that CL can transmit to humans - so if you have any cuts on your hands - were gloves when skirting - or let the fleece sit in the sun for a few days out of the bag to dry up/kill any potential, CL does not survive in hot/dry climates from what I know. I do NOT think you should get rid of the fiber!!!


Rose

[julie follansbee]

Sara, Rose and Marty..
Good idea about skirting with gloves! Though I had started already without.
Is CL transferrable to dogs do you know? We have 2 pugs and though I don't let them in with our alpacas, they are my constant companions otherwise and are at my feet as I skirt.
I guess right now we are in a waiting/quarantine situation. I really like peace of mind so I will not be sending them anywhere, nor will I be offering any breedings to our male until we get some definitive answers.
Thanks again for your support and encouragement...I don't feel that it's as bleak as it could be!
Julie

[OHL]

Julie,
I wouldn't be at all concerned about your dogs. I don't believe it is readily trasmissable to dogs, if they are susceptible at all. I know folks with CL in their goats/sheep who also have fulltime livestock guardian dogs who have not had any indication of CL, so I would tend to think it is a non-issue. No research into that, just my observation.

Transmission to humans is rare, but is possible, so gloves would probably be a good extra precaution during skirting if you can't lay the fiber in the sun for a couple of days.

Good luck and thank you for being brave enough to ask the question - I hope that others can learn from your experience.

Sara

[julie follansbee]

Good news about the dogs! Our weather has been very rainy for the past week or so , so I haven't had an opportunity to lay my fleece outside and the days that it isn't raining it's very windy! I guess for all intents and purposes the breeding end of our business is suspended indefinitely. I cancelled our breeding plans.:( My husband is really not happy...this is a business after all, and we're in our first year! This will be a great learning experience! You never learn anything without adversity, I like to say!

[Marty McGee Bennett]

your integrity will serve you well. And I always say if you take care of what is best for your animals they will take care of you. Well done I say!

[julie follansbee]

thanks Marty!:)
I just came in from checking on them and they all look happy!
Now I'm off to a funeral!

[julie follansbee]

Good news! Some of the farms involved in this didn't wait the recommended 2 months before having blood drawn and tested, but their results have come back negative. We had our blood drawn yesterday (2 months to the day!) and am hoping for the same results as the rest!
More good news is that because we are more or less quarantined, we bred two of our females to our wonderful male instead of sending them away and they are both confirmed pregnant! We're pretty excited because this is our first try at beeding!
On another note, I tore a tendon on the bottom of my foot on Tuesday (playing tennis...trying to burn those calories so that I don;t have to eliminate them!) and I assisted the vet on crutches very comfortably. My point in this, is that using Marty's techniques, I was able to corral them with a little bit of help from my son, then I held them in the bracelet and used TTouch to calm them while the vet drew blood from their necks and ultrasounded the girls. None of us got hurt and I think the vet (who was a little apprehensive that I would be able to help at all!) was amazed. It went VERY quickly!
Thanks again Marty!
PS..your techniques are WONDERFUL for teenagers!!! We've got ours in a catch pen on the end of a nine foot lead and he doesn't even know it!!

[rose@almapark.com]

Good job Julie - let us know how the tests go!

Rose

[julie follansbee]

Thanks Rose!

[Marty McGee Bennett]

well done! I am so glad you are having such good success with the handling methods... did you use your crutch as a wand? AND teenage boys! Now that is extraordinary. You must make sure he never reads the forum!

[julie follansbee]

Hi Guys!
More good news! The vet called yesterday to tell us that our animals were negative for CL. I guess this is our first test and we will test again in 2 months.
As for using my crutches as a wand..I did!!
Another funny handling story...a couple called me who had just gotten five alpacas (not from us!:() and found our website after the fact and wanted to see our layout and get some advice...you would have thought I had a pep talk with the animals before they arrived. The animals did everything I asked them to do...so much so that the husband said that I must have some kind of magic because their animals didn't behave like this at all and he wanted one of our animals! I assured them that it wasn't magic and that I've had my share of alpaca chases before I found Marty (and still do with one animal!). I encouraged them to join the Guild and attend a workshop if they could.
No we didn't sell an animal (yet!) but I sure got a boost of confidence!:D

[Marty McGee Bennett]

woo hoo! AND you didn't sell one .... yet! They may very well come back or tell someone else you never know. Thanks for the endorsement and for being such a supporter! well done!