Coccidiosis in alpacas and llamas lacks approved drugs and clear tests

Alpacas and llamas have gained ground outside the Andes, in fibre, tourism and companion settings, and brought with them a problem familiar to traditional breeders: coccidiosis. Protozoa of the genus Eimeria are among the most important enteric pathogens of crias, and the accumulated knowledge about them remains smaller than the number of animals kept would suggest. A review published on 5 September 2026 in Veterinary Parasitology, by researchers from the Czech Republic, gathers that knowledge and names the gaps.

The text covers morphology, life cycle, epidemiology, pathogenicity, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of the Eimeria species infecting South American camelids. It gives particular attention to Eimeria macusaniensis, the large-oocyst coccidium whose biological characteristics set it apart from the other species, and to two practical obstacles: the prolonged prepatent period and intermittent oocyst shedding, which make it hard to confirm infection by faecal examination at the moment the animal falls ill.

According to the review's abstract, there are few validated molecular methods for diagnosis in camelids, and no anticoccidial is approved specifically for these species. In practice, treatment protocols are usually extrapolated from domestic ruminants, which the review records as a limitation rather than a recommendation. The authors call for molecular characterisation of the species, early diagnostic tools and therapeutic approaches based on evidence produced in camelids themselves.

The scale of the problem in the animals' home environment appears in a 2021 study in Parasitology International, conducted in the Quenamari community at 4,500 metres altitude in Cusco, Peru. Among 78 clinically asymptomatic alpaca crias, 87.18% were shedding Eimeria oocysts. E. lamae was found in 85.90% of samples, E. punoensis in 62.82%, E. alpacae in 53.85%, E. macusaniensis in 41.03% and E. ivitaensis in 5.13%. The mean burden was 43,920 oocysts per gram of faeces, with E. lamae accounting for the highest counts. The authors attribute the findings to environmental contamination with oocysts of several species and caution that it remains to be established whether this burden has subclinical effects.

The contrast comes from a preliminary longitudinal study published in 2025 in Parasites, Hosts and Diseases, on a herd of 61 alpacas at a tourism farm on Jeju Island, Korea. In 406 samples collected monthly between June 2022 and June 2023, overall gastrointestinal parasite prevalence was 11.3%, with strongyles and Trichuris the most frequent and E. lamae and E. macusaniensis among the six taxa identified. The authors explain the lower prevalence than reported in Japan, Poland and Australia by the restricted pasture access of tourism-oriented management, without ruling out reinfection risk from environmental contamination.

The three papers point in the same direction: Eimeria burden in alpacas depends heavily on the husbandry system and pasture access, infection can be high even without clinical signs, and laboratory diagnosis has known limits of sensitivity over time. None of this replaces assessment by a veterinarian experienced with camelids; on the contrary, it reinforces the need for one, because treatment decisions still rest on extrapolation from other species. This summary describes the state of the evidence and does not recommend clinical conduct; reading the full text of the review and discussing it with the professional responsible for the herd is the path to any application.