Relationships between Body Condition Score (BCS), FAMACHA©-Score and Haematological Parameters in Alpacas (Vicugna pacos), and Llamas (Lama glama) Presented at the Veterinary Clinic

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Alpacas and llamas are increasingly presented at the veterinary clinic in Germany. Owners often notice too late when their animal is emaciated or anaemic. Emaciation can be detected by checking the so-called body condition score (BCS). An indication of anaemia can be provided directly by the FAMACHA©-score (FS), which has been adopted from small ruminants. There is still little information on both scores for alpacas and llamas, so a retrospective evaluation of data from the veterinary clinic was carried out. More than half of the animals admitted to the clinic were too lean and more than one in ten alpacas or one in five llamas showed clinical signs of anaemia. Both scores were compared with the findings from the animals’ blood counts, which showed that poor nutritional status was associated with anaemia and shifts in inflammatory cells. Regular monitoring of BCS and FS is therefore important in alpacas and llamas to detect emaciation and anaemia in time. ABSTRACT: South American camelids (SAC) are being more and more presented at the veterinary Clinics in Germany. A bad nutritional condition, which can be easily categorized using a body condition score (BCS) of the animals, is often not noticed by the owners. Further anaemia is also often only detected in an advanced stage in SAC. Clinical detection of anaemia can be performed by assessing the FAMACHA©-score (FS), that is adapted from small ruminants. So far, there is only little information available about BCS and FS in SAC. In this study, both clinical scores were assessed in alpacas and llamas presented at the veterinary clinic and compared with the haematological parameters from the animals. The data were extracted retrospectively from the animals’ medical records and compared statistically. More than half of the alpacas (60%) and llamas (70%) had a BCS < 3, while 12% of the alpacas and 21% of the llamas had a FS > 2. A decreased BCS was associated with a decrease in haematocrit, haemoglobin, lymphocytes, and eosinophils, as well as an increase in FS and neutrophils. BCS and FS should be assessed regularly in SAC to detect emaciation and anaemia in time.