Dr. Michelle Kutzler DVM, PhD, DACT
Oregon State University
Confirmation of West Nile Virus (WNV) Neurologic Disease in Alpacas Using
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RTPCR) and
Immunohistochemistry (IHC)
10/01/03 - 03/31/06
Total funding - $7,550
The original objective of this grant was to confirm or rule-out the presence
of WNV within postmortem tissues submitted from alpaca veterinarians across the
country and provide this information to alpaca ranchers and veterinarians.
Owners and referring veterinarians have been reluctant to send samples for this
study. Over the past three years, samples from only ten animals have been
received despite advertisement on the Alpaca Research Foundation website, the
International Lama Registry website and verbal communication at meetings and
over the phone with veterinarians and owners across the country. To address
this reluctance as well as provide an important new diagnostic tool for the
fight against WNV, we modified our objectives to include development of an
antemortem IgM-capture ELISA that is able to accurately diagnose acute infection
rapidly so the appropriate treatment can be implemented.