Animal Health

Blood transfusion would be a potential source in alpacas, however unlikely. The other method that West Nile Virus can be transmitted – at least in horses and in people – is transplacentally, which means a pregnant mother who has been infected can infect the unborn child. Transmission by blood transfusion or across the placenta have not been demonstrated in camelids. more »

The first reports of WNV clinical disease in camelids occurred during the 2002 epizootic, which happened to be a particularly bad year for WNV in other species as well, accounting for 284 human deaths and countless bird and horse losses. Confirmation of camelid clinical neurologic disease resulting from WNV infection was made from post-mortem testing using immunohistochemistry and reverse- transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from cases in Ohio and Iowa, respectively. more »