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BIOSECURITY OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN CAMELID

by Caroline Mixon, M.S.
Carodel Alpacas
Flowery Branch, Georgia

Introduction

During the Fall of 2002, I was asked by the ARI Board of Directors to be their government liaison. My responsibilities were to review bills coming out of committees of the US Congress. The reading of the Federal Register last summer pushed us into a quick response to USDA as to what position we would like to see the alpaca placed, and its valued compensation for establishing market value should the alpaca be consumed in the fervor of the moment in the event of an outbreak of a communicable animal disease. The first major item to come to my attention was Foot and Mouth Disease and the posture of the alpaca. This topic took me into some very interesting history of the political posturing that it takes to get things done on the federal as well as state level. It is the result of this ongoing pursuit that I am sharing with you the state of things as of this date. In this paper you will learn about your responsibility of protecting your animals and what the protocols might be should we have a national disaster, be it accidental or intentional.

Preface

The first part of the word livestock is live. It is a serious responsibility when you take on the mantle of being a farmer/rancher and know that animals depend on you to provide not only their food, water, and shelter, but moreover, a safe environment in which they live. Your vigilance for recognizing what is normal becomes the rule of the day. Prevention becomes your goal. The term safe takes on a whole new meaning. As a responsible caretaker of livestock, you must employ whatever measures of security it takes to keep your livestock safe. The events of 9/11/01 in the history of the United States of America has caused all levels of government to take on a heightened alert to intentional acts of terror towards our agriculture. This includes introduction to both animals and plants of infectious diseases that might thwart our economy and welfare.

Camelid Biosecurity

The two species of the South American camelid (SAC) that reside in the United States of America includes the alpaca (Lama pacos) and the llama (Lama glama). We do not know all that we need to know about the SAC. Preventing the introduction of disease agents is a continuous challenge for producers of livestock, veterinarians and our government. The branch of our government that is responsible for this is the United States Department of Agriculture. In that branch it is specifically the APHIS (Animal, Plant Health Inspection Service) has the responsibility for designing guidelines for protocols that are to be followed in the event of an outbreak of a foreign animal disease (FAD). As of this writing, the USA is classified as FMD-Free (Foot and Mouth Disease). This is a critical classification to have for it has great economic impact to exported goods. There are many countries who are endemic to FMD and therefore do not have the luxury of being classified as “free”. There are duties and taxes imposed on countries that are not FMD-Free and restraint of their goods coming to this country is imposed. Therefore, we benefit from this classification. It would be a travesty if we lost that status. So, it is therefore clear why our government fights very hard on a daily basis to keep that status.

If there should be an outbreak of an infectious disease, this country would do everything possible to isolate and eradicate the disease. This includes depopulation of animals.

Great Britain is trying to come out of a horrific situation with a recent outbreak (FY 2001) of FMD. During that outbreak, they believe started with contaminated black market food which was in the garbage that was fed to pigs on a farm and it went crazy from there. Over 11 million cattle were slaughtered. In this depopulation, 300 llamas and alpacas were slaughtered because of where they lived. Testing was not done on all of these, but it is speculated that none of them were infected or carriers. They were in a “zone”, either within a certain radius of an infected farm or were co-habiting the same premises with infected cows, sheep and/or goats. Alpaca females, pregnant, some with cria, and herd sires were included. This represented almost 8% of their SAC population. It was truly a dark hour for those owners and breeders.

FMD is the disease that is at the top of the security target list for it affects beef cattle, dairy cows, and swine in particular. It spreads by contac t and aerosol (air). The SAC is not highly susceptible to FMD according to Dr. David Anderson (op cit Alpaca Registry Journal). The SAC is not considered a carrier or the target of bioterrorism. This message has been delivered to the USDA. The way things stand now is that should the SAC (alpacas and llamas) be within a “zone” of infection, these animals would be quarantined, tested, and placed into a wait period for any further adverse test results. Automatic depopulation would not be the norm. From a recent survey that I conducted the response was mixed as to what would be the fate of the SAC if an outbreak should be discovered. Of 15 of states in the east and mid-west that we have queried, only one had an automatic depopulation standard.

The purpose in presenting this to the alpaca and llama owners and breeders at this time is because of a heightened alert to agroterrorism. This would be the intentional introduction of the FMD virus ( or any communicable disease) to the livestock of the United States by an act of terrorism. The USDA is ever watchful for an isolated case or a multiple set of cases that might happen concurrently. They have a plan. Each state in turn has a plan. It is called the Emergency Response Plan and falls under the auspices of APHIS and the office of the State Veterinarians usually in the respective state's Department of Agriculture.

The plans have four stages:

  1. Prevention
  2. Preparedness
  3. Response
  4. Recovery
At this point in time, the United States is putting in place A and B. Contingency plans are in place for the latter two and they are compelling enough to make one take this seriously. Each state has a plan. Ask your state veterinarian or the APHIS Veterinarian in Charge for your state for a copy. (By the way, these two offices, one being state governed, the other federally governed have a pecking order as to who is in charge during a crisis. This is one issue that Great Britain did not have clearly understood and may have been a contributing factor to the unnecessary slaughter (as they call it).

Agroterrorism

Agroterrorism, is an intentional attack on the agriculture of a given country or people. Agroterrorism is best handled with a defined offensive plan; a farmer can counter attack with biosecurity. Biosecurity has a many pronged strategy that employs techniques whereby the safest environment possible exists for your livestock. Biosecurity brings into play protocols that safe guard your animals, personnel and property. In the light of agroterrorism, the security is raised to a heightened level that puts the owner/breeder on guard to watch closely all facets of access to the farm/ranch. In the cattle, swine, chicken industry, free access to pastures, barns and the livestock themselves is much protected. This is not true in the alpaca and llama world as a whole. The magic part of this industry is that we invite a myriad of people to visit our farms daily. They have access to the roads and paths that lead to the pastures. They walk in the pastures picking up animal by-products on their shoes. They handle our animals, snuggle them, and run their hands through the fiber. This process, we hope, will lead to their not being able to resist them, purchase them and take them to their respective farms/ranches. This is the way we market and sell our product. The selection process of the alpaca and the llama is very subjective and our industry feels this is critical to the sale. Biosecurity measures

We do not know all that we need to know about the SAC. Most indications from researchers are that the SAC is not highly susceptible to FMD, but no one is going to say that it can never happen. With that in mind, you can see that the SAC goes into the category that allows for them to be tested before any slaughter is done.

It is not thought that the SAC would be a target of agroterrorism, but certainly may reside in a “zone” where an infectious outbreak might happen. Therefore, this species would be swept up in the quarantine state of emergency. In light of this, all measures of safety need to be in place to prevent any possible introduction of infectious diseases. This is not to say that we should not continue current practices, but the alpaca and llama owner/breeder needs to put in a few techniques that will circumvent any possible introduction of a disease to our herds. Most visitors would honor your concern and not be slighted by your standards.

As an owner of livestock when your written Standards of Operation and Care, which is your own creation, is implemented, then the term “biosecurity” will be a normal routine, just kicked up a notch or so.

The following are questions that you must pose to yourself. From these questions, you can develop your Standards of Operation and Care.

Remember your biosecurity plans will only be as strong as your weakest point.

  1. Access to farm
    1. Can gate be closed and locked at entrance to property?
    2. Do you have an alarm or detection devices that let you know when
    3. someone enters your property through the gate?
    4. Are there gates and fencing that isolates alpacas or llamas from road traffic of the farming operations.
  2. Access to animals and animal safeguards
    1. Is fencing in place to isolate animals from visitors?
    2. Are cria inoculated at birth?
    3. Are all animals current on their inoculations?
    4. Do you quarantine new animals to the herd for at least one month?
    5. Do you quarantine your show animals after a trip with a protocol to protect the home herd?
    6. Are the quarantine pastures adjacent to your current herds?
    7. Do your quarantined animals share water troughs or fence lines with the home herd?
  3. Visitors
    1. Do you ask if they have been in a foreign country within five days of a visit to your farm?
    2. Do you ask if they have been on another farm within the last 24 hours?
    3. Do they wash their hands with anti-bacterial soap before touching your animals?
    4. Do they were boot/shoe covers while in your pastures?
    5. Are they reminded not to bring dogs?
    6. Do you have a policy about children on the premises?
  4. Delivery trucks
    1. Do delivery trucks have access to paths where your animals walk?
    2. Do you have a plan if the delivery truck cannot get to your normal drop off zone for feed and hay?
  5. Personnel
    1. If you have personnel who help on the farm/ranch, do you know their backgrounds?
    2. Do you have your standards of care that are carried out by personnel?
  6. Veterinarian
    1. Does your veterinarian change clothes or put on other clothing before working on your animals?
    2. Are the clothes the veterinarians wear clean?
    3. Does your farm provide protective outer wear for the veterinarian to wear?
    4. Does the veterinarian wear boot covers?
    5. Has the veterinarian been on another farm in the last 24 hours?
    6. Do you have a place for the veterinarian to wash his/her hands?
    7. Do you have anti-bacterial soap and disposable towels available at all times?
Standards of Operation and Care should be developed, written and be in operation. As you reviewed the previous questions, you could get the flavor of where you need to head when writing your procedures. The written protocols of operation and care should include all aspects of herd care and health. You must have written policies for most people are not mind readers! In the event of an outbreak of an infectious disease and your farm falls under quarantine, with the Standards of Operation and Care in place, the basics are covered. You may need to tighten up your security. This may result in major or minor changes of your management practices. You may find that you need to make an abrupt turn on some of your current procedures. You may have too much of an “open-door” policy.

Quarantine

This seems like a simple ten letter word, but let me assure you that it has far reaching implications.

  1. 1. Quarantine means that all transports stop, in an out of a zone or state. Nothing comes out and nothing goes in without a permit to do so. This would affect the movement of animals and their products for any reason: shows, breeding contracts of outside dams, fleece movement.
  2. 2. All trucks, vehicles must check in at your gate. Access to the property may be stopped. Tire wash and sanitation to be made available
  3. 3. Supplies, feed, hay may be offloaded at the gate and farm personnel to take to storage area.
  4. 4. Access to farm by visitors may be halted
  5. 5. What would status be of any animals that had been shipped off the farm sixweeks prior to quarantine?
  6. 6. Isolation wear, i.e. boot covers, jump suits etc. to be available.
  7. 7. Length of quarantine time is a minimum of a month, probably longer depending on size of outbreak.
Your ability to cope with quarantine may certainly affect your being able to keep everything in balance. Try to keep all in perspective and be proactive. Compensation

Compensation has been established for some species with regards to per cent of market value if that animal is part of a depopulation order. The SAC has not been accepted yet as part of a compensation program. Compensation for costs of quarantine does not exist. Lost value is not compensated. As you can tell, an outbreak of an infectious disease, whether the SAC is susceptible or not can have far reaching financial implications.

State and Local Animal Health Authorities

Establish a good relationship with your State Department of Agriculture. The AOBA affiliate in your area can be very instrumental in this. Invite the veterinarians to an affiliate meeting as a guest lecturer. Let them know you practice good hygiene and are cooperative and the path may be smoother. Let them know the existence of the SAC in their jurisdiction.

Check your state veterinarian and see where the SAC stands in their protocol should FMD ever be problem. Each state should have an Emergency Response Plan. Check that and see if the SAC has been considered. The SAC is not a universally documented species in the plans.

Future Implications As you are aware, your livestock mortality insurance does not cover any acts of government that would include depopulation, or seizure and/or eradication. Your purchase/sales contracts with potential buyers make have some interesting twists. If the quarantine should happen to include animals that have left your farm within 60 days, will they be quarantined where they live? Who pays for that? What if you should have a dam/cria on your farm at the time of quarantine, who will pay for her prolonged agistment? Where will the burden lie if the visiting livestock to your farm gets caught up in a seizure and depopulation?

Summary

As of this writing, this is the status of the SAC with regards to agroterrorism: The USDA has not committed to writing, but has agreed that the SAC is not highly susceptible to FMD and will be quarantined and on a case by case basis determines the rigors of quarantine. There are many dedicated SAC owners, scientists and interested parties, including AOBA (Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association), ARI (Alpaca Registy, Inc.) and other llama organizations, working through the United States Animal Health Association (USAHA), to get the proper verbiage in place in the Emergency Response Plans of USDA (APHIS), and in the Emergency Response Plans of each state via the state veterinarian's offices. This takes political posturing and time, but things are in motion. These groups are also working on compensation of confiscated animals, plus costs of sanitizing and clean-up. The best thing we can do for ourselves to have incorrigible biosecurity plans in place, live by them and be vigilant.

If you have questions, please email me at GaAlpacas@aol.com.

Reproduced from Flowery Branch, Georgia with permission of Caroline Mixon, M.S. Copyright © Flowery Branch, Georgia

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