Helmintiasis en alpacas (Vicugna pacos) de dos comunidades de Macusani, Puno, durante la época seca

The study aimed to estimate the prevalence of gastrointestinal helminth in alpacas of two peasant communities in Macusani district, Puno, Peru during the dry season and its association with age and origin; also, to establish the average parasite burden and to identify the genus of helminth presents. Stool samples were collected from 1319 alpacas from August to October 2010 and were processed by the flotation method using Willis solution and by the spontaneous sedimentation technique. The parasite burden and identification of nematode larvae was done by the McMaster method and the modified Baermann technique respectively. The prevalence of helminths was 63.9 ± 2.6%. The logistic regression test showed that age was a risk factor for the presence of helminths (p<0.05), where alpacas of 5 months to <1 year old and those of 1 to 3 years old had 2.93 and 1.98 higher risk of this parasite in comparison to animals >3 years old, while there was no difference in the prevalence between the two communities. The parasite burden per each genus was lower than 100 epg. Helminth genus identified were Nematodirus, Trichuris, Moniezia, Cooperia, Oesophagostomum, Trichostrongylus, Ostertagia, Bunostomum, Haemonchus, Capillaria and Lamanema, where the prevalence of Nematodirus spp was the highest (52.8%) followed by Trichuris spp (10.8%) and Moniezia spp (9.6%).