The University of Massachusetts-Amherst is adding another class to those looking at sheep physiology or equine diseases -- that of camelid animals.

The undergraduate program is believed the first in the nation to study camelids, which include camels, alpacas and llamas.

Made possible by a $500,000 gift from Jennifer and Ian Lutz of Cas-Cad-Nac Farm in Perkinsville, Vt., the program will address a growing national need for veterinarians, farm managers and researchers knowledgeable about camelids.

Dr. Stephen Purdy, director of the new program, says the number of veterinarians with large-animal training is plummeting. And even those trained in large animals may not have encountered camelids, which are very different from their ruminant relatives, which include cattle, goats, sheep and deer, he said.

"Their GI tract is similar to cows, sheep and goats, but their stomachs have three compartments, not four," he said. Their uterine lining is like that of a horse, yet their mode of breeding -- ovulation induced by the physical act of mating -- is more feline than equine.