• In the animal industry, castration is a valuable management tool, but it can be a source of concern from an animal welfare perspective. The existing standards for castration that have been developed for other livestock species, even the new standards, cannot be applied to alpacas because of the specific morphological and developmental characteristics of the alpaca. The best method to castrate alpacas is still being debated amongst animal protection groups, producers, animal scientists, and veterinarians. Each group has opinions about which method(s) could address their specific concerns, but a consensus is yet to be found. more »
  • A more professional Australian alpaca industry is emerging and enterprises with fleece, stud animals and meat sales have the potential to be profitable. The domestic and export sale of fleece has been facilitated by expert classing of alpaca fleece. The success of domestic markets for alpaca meat has been attributed to chef training and the development of dedicated alpaca meat processors. more »
  • Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus (BVDV) is a Pestivirus classified into two genotypes, “Type 1” and “Type 2”, that infects domestic and wild ruminant herds world-wide. In addition to cattle, BVDV is also known to infect camelids and deer. Related viruses include hog cholera virus in swine and border disease in sheep. For cattle producers, the virus causes an estimated $2 billion per year in economic losses through decreased weight gains, decreased milk production, reproductive losses, and death. more »
  • The Alpaca Association of New Zealand has reviewed its fleece scoring system and decided to award 105 points instead of 100 so as to change the weighting for certain traits. This came about following a judges' training session. more »
  • Over the past seven years the team at the Alpaca Molecular Research group at Curtin University has been researching the inheritance patterns and molecular causes of colour in alpacas. Using a combination of Mendelian genetics principles, molecular genetic techniques, objective chemical analysis of the fibre and observation of skin and nail colour we have been able to arrive at a model that, we think, describes most of the colour variation in alpacas. The current nomenclature for alpaca colours contributes to the confusion. One person's fawn is another's light brown and one person's mid brown is another's red brown. We therefore propose a new set of names for base colour varieties that reflects the genetic basis of the colour. more »

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