FAO launches relief operation to save 18,000 Peruvian alpacas

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

ROME (AFP) — The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said Thursday it had launched an emergency operation to save 18,000 Peruvian alpacas at risk of dying and endangering local livelihoods.

The organisation's branch in Peru has doled out 36,800 doses of treatment to alpacas owned by poor farmers in the country's highlands, where livestock is suffering due to a severe cold spell, FAO said in a statement.

"Forced to go without food, perhaps for days at a time, their alpacas have become weak and susceptible to disease," said Marc Vandersmissen, FAO's Emergency Coordinator in Peru.

Cold weather arrived three months earlier than expected in the Peruvian highlands this year, preventing farmers from harvesting crops and from feeding the alpaca...