Cortland Standard .net

By AMY GERNON
Staff Reporter
agernon@cortlandstandard.edu
MARATHON — A veterinarian has confirmed that the 15 alpacas that died in April at Marathon Alpacas succumbed to meningeal worm, a parasite that is carried by white-tailed deer and predominantly impacts alpacas and llamas.
The deaths of the alpacas were reported to the Cortland County Sheriff’s Department by concerned neighbors, which prompted an investigation into their deaths by the Cortland Community SPCA.
Dr. Katherine Dart of Groton City Animal Hospital said at the farm on Thursday that the remainder of Sam Groome’s alpaca herd appears to be in good health. On Thursday, the entire herd was body-scored, a process which entails examining the alpacas’ physical condition. During the process, the animals were shorn, and their teeth and their hooves were shaved.
Nearly 100 percent of white-tailed deer are carriers of the meningeal worm, according to Dart, who said that the parasite is common in this region.
Dart gave Groome a care plan for the herd that includes monthly shots of two deworming medications. These should flush the parasite from any of the alpacas that may have been exposed but are not yet exhibiting symptoms. There are between 280 and 290 alpacas on the farm.
Symptoms of the parasitic infection are dragging of the hind legs or an inability to stand, Dart said. Once symptoms begin it is too late to cure, Dart said.
“If we see the alpacas have a hard time getting up or are dragging their hind legs, then it’s a sign,” Dart said. In alpacas, symptoms first begin to show in the hind legs, and then move forward through the body. Eventually the parasite reaches the spinal cord and meninges, the membrane around the brain and spinal cord.
“We hope this plan will be the best prevention,” Dart said.
The first round of the injections were administered to the entire herd Thursday morning, according to Dayton Wood, the farm’s caretaker.
“If (Dart) had gotten here last Monday there wouldn’t have been anything she could have done,” Groome said, because the affected alpacas were already exhibiting late-stage symptoms.
Aside from the alpacas that have already died, there do not appear to be any others with the symptoms.
The meningeal worm is transmitted from white-tailed deer to alpacas and llamas through the deer’s feces.
“The alpaca just have to walk through the deer feces to be exposed,” Dart said, because the alpaca will occasionally bite their own legs to stop an itch.
Wood said that a herd of about30 deer entered one of the fields on the farm in mid-April to access exposed grass. They believe this is when the exposure to the parasite occurred.
Undersheriff Herbert Barnhart, who visited the farm on Tuesday because calls were made to the sheriff’s department concerning the dead alpacas, said that no action will be taken by the department, which turned the investigation into the animals’ deaths over to the Cortland Community Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on May 1.
“As far as the cause of death, we do believe it was in relation to the worm.” said SPCA Officer William Carr, who visited the farm on May 1 and again on Thursday.
Carr added that the SPCA’s investigation into the deaths will close once he has spoken with Dart, which he anticipates will occur later today. The investigation was not to determine if neglect was occurring on the farm, but only to determine the cause of death for the 15 alpacas.
Carr said it was obvious that the alpacas that were alive had access to food, water and care, and the practices on the farm as a whole appear to be good.
“Over the course of the investigation, we did learn quite a bit about the meningeal worm,” a parasite he was previously unfamiliar with, Carr said.
Groome said the alpacas are treated regularly with a prescribed dewormer as a basic preventative measure every three months, but it is not possible to control a roaming deer herd. Groome purchases a special variety of hay for his alpacas in Virginia because hay grown in New York may have been exposed to the parasite.