Gastrointestinal parasites of Lamas in the Bolivian Andes

A cross sectional study was conducted to determine prevalences and intensities of gastrointestinal (GIT) parasites in lamas in the Bolivian Andes. A quantitative and qualitative necro-copro-parasitlogical study was performed on 33 lamas between October and December 2007. At the time of necropsy the  lamas were aged 1½  to >4 years. They originated from 14 different farms in the most lama dense areas of Bolivia: Oruro, Potosi, La Paz and the highlands above Cochabamba. In total 16 different species of nematodes, one cestode species, one trematode species, and one coccidian genus were detected (prevalences in brackets):

In C3 (third stomach compartment): Camelostrongylus mentulatus (33 %), Haemonchus contortus (15 %), Graphinema aucheniae (12 %), Marshallagia occidentalis (6 %), Ostertagia ostertagi (12 %); in the small intestine: Lamanema chavezi (64 %), Nematodirus spathiger (55 %), Nematodirus lamae (12 %), Nematodirus abnormalis (15 %), Cooperia onchophora (9 %), Cooperia surnabada (3 %), Trichostrongylus colubriformis (6 %), Trichostrongylus vitrinus (3 %), Trichostrongylus probolurus (6 %), Moniezia spp. (3 %); in the large intestine: Trichuris spp. (42 %), Skrjabinema spp. (3 %); in the liver: Fasciola hepatica (12 %); in faeces Eimeria spp. (82 %). Pathological changes in the liver were ascribed to be most probably caused by L. chavezi larva migration. The latter species, considered to be the very most pathogenic of all lama GIT nematode species, was also the species detected at the very highest intensity in the present survey, with a mean burden of 2,121 worms per animal.