Infectious diseases in new world camelids

Abstract

We have been lucky over the years that camelids in North America have had relatively few problems with contagious disease. Herd outbreaks of infections were rare. Individual infections were more commonly the result of opportunistic invasion of damaged tissues, rather than aggressive, spreadable infections. In recent years, our expanding knowledge and improvement in diagnostic methodologies have enabled us to identify a number of important infectious agents. Some of these are of very sporadic importance. Others appear to be more common. The amount of press they receive is not always directly proportional to their importance.