Infections of alpacas at very early ages suggest that the dams may act as asymptomatic carriers of some Eimeria species. The aim of this study was to determine the dynamics of Eimeria spp oocyst excretion in alpaca dams during the calving season at the "La Raya" Research and Production Centre, Puno, Peru. Faecal samples were taken from 50 clinically healthy alpacas of the Huacaya breed naturally infected with Eimeria spp in the two weeks prepartum, week of delivery and four weeks postpartum (period December 2018 - March 2019). Dams were categorized into three age groups [A: 3-4 (n=19), B: 5-8 (n=26) and C: 9-12 years (n=5)]. Sample analysis was carried out using Sheather solution flotation and McMaster techniques. The pregnant dams entered the calving season excreting E. punoensis [49/50 (98%)], E. alpacae [43/50 (86%)], E. lamae [5/50 (10%), and E. macusaniensis [3/50 (6%)] but not E. i...

The present study evaluated the presence of 10 genes encoding various virulence factors of biological importance in 100 Salmonella Typhimurium isolates, where 90 isolates came from sick guinea pigs and 10 from apparently healthy ones. DNA was extracted from all isolates and analyzed using the Multiple PCR technique to assess the presence of the spvB, spiA, cdtB, sipB, tolC, sitC, lpfC, sifA, sopB and pefA genes. A similar genetic pattern was obtained, with variable detection frequencies greater than 60%, both in healthy and sick guinea pigs, except for the cdtB gene, which was not detected. There were no significant differences between the presence of Salmonella Typhimurium virulence factors isolated from sick guinea pigs and apparently healthy guinea pigs.