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In the long. few remaining animals often cross-bred with the remaining high-plains llama populations before the major herds could be recovered and controlled breeding was reintroduced.

Full Membership

  • (Need to own at least 1 registered North American Paco-Vicuna®)
  • Right to one vote/farm at NAPVA meetings
  • Discounted animal registration fees
  • Use of NAPVA’s registered trademarks on your farm products
  • Access to yearly reports from The Paco-Vicuna Registry®
  • Animals’ fiber data included in EPDs, and report
  • Listed on nap-v.com as active member with full contact info and weblinks

Associate Membership

  • Right to attend NAPVA membership meetings (but no vote)
  • Listed on nap-v.com as associate member

Paco-Vicuña Today

The current American North American Paco-Vicuña breed has a distinctly different physical appearance from the standard alpaca. Alpacas have nearly as much fiber on their necks and legs as they do across the blanket. Conversely, North American Paco-Vicuña have particularly little fiber growth on the neck (on average, only about 1” long) and lack the prominent leg and belly fiber as well as topknots of domestic alpaca. This gives Paco-Vicuña unusually clean faces and well exposed eyes. As such, their fiber production is virtually 100% blanket or prime. But the extreme density of their fiber, along with the crinkle rather than organized crimp make their fleeces highly insulating and warm.

Imports

Due to his fascination with the finer micron fleeces, Phil Switzer began to import the more primitive looking alpacas he found on Chile’s Altiplano plateau. These imported animals – believed to the result of breeding between alpaca and Vicuña – represented the birth of the North American Paco-Vicuna. Since their introduction to the United States in 2002, more than 900 animals have been registered. The North American Paco-Vicuña Association salutes out Paco-Vicuña Pioneers, without whom the Paco-Vicuña’s success in North America would not have been possible. Once imported, these early Paco-Vicuñas were bred with a laser focus on maintaining a low micron value throughout each animal’s life span and establishing a longer and more reliable fiber staple length. Many of the current North American Paco-Vicuña in the United States are offspring of the original camelids found on the Altiplano in west-central South America.