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OCR for page 241
20
Guinea Pig
Guinea pigs l (Ca via porcellus) are promising micro-
livestock because they require little capital or labor;
provide an inexpensive, readily available, palatable l'
meat; have no odor; and are suitable for keeping
indoors. In the highlands of the Andes, many Indians
raise them to supplement diets based on grains and
vegetables. Families eat them mostly on special occasions such as
weddings and first communions, or they sell them to restaurants or
peddle them in village markets.
The low cost of these small animals makes them available even to
many landless peasants. For both the small farmer and apartment
dweller, the guinea pig is a possible food reserve. It converts kitchen
scraps and marginal wastelands into meat. According to estimates, 20
females and 2 males may produce enough meat year-round to provide
an adequate meat diet for a family of 6.2
Since husbandry practices are simple and cheap, the guinea pig is
an excellent source of supplementary income. An FAO study at Ibarra,
Ecuador, showed that on small mountain farms the guinea pig provided
more profit than either pigs or dairy cows, partly because its meat
fetched high prices.
Although domesticated guinea pigs are mainly a food resource of
Latin America, their use has also spread to parts of Africa and Asia.
They are raised, for instance, in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Sierra
Leone, Togo, and Zaire. In southern Nigeria, at least 10 percent of all
households raise guinea pigs for food, with colonies of up to 30 animals
per household. Guinea pigs are also raised in small cages or cardboard
boxes by small farmers in the Philippines.3
The feeding efficiency is high: studies have shown that it takes
between 3.2 and 5.7 kg of forage to produce 1 kg of growth. This
makes guinea pigs more efficient than most farm mammals.
' See also page 194.
2 Huss, D.L. and G. Roca, 1982.
3 Information from L. Fiedler.
241
OCR for page 242
MICROLIVESTOCK
The guinea pig is a common household livestock in Peru. They spend their lives around
people and become so tame that they can be cradled or carried around. (G.H. Harrison)
OCR for page 243
GUINEA PIG
r
J
-
The native distribution of the guinea pig's wild ancestor.
243
Guinea pigs seem especially adapted to the climate and forages of
high-altitude zones, but the fact that they are being raised in Central
and West Africa indicates that they are also adapted to the lowland
tropics.
AREA OF POTENTIAL USE
Worldwide.
APPEARANCE AND SIZE
Guinea pigs have stocky bodies, fairly short hind legs, and short,
unfurred ears. Adults can weigh up to 2 kg, but an average-sized
specimen is about 0.5 kg. They are 2~0 cm long (average 28 cm) and
have no tail. In domesticated forms, the potage may be smooth or
coarse, short or long, and in some types the hairs form rosettes.4
Domesticated types come in colors ranging from white to dark brown,
as well as piebald.S
4 In the Andes, animals with curly hair are preferred as meat producers; their bodies
are stockier and they are quieter than animals with smooth hair. Information from A.
Carpio.
5 They are polydactyl, and apparently the occurrence of more than five fingers seems
to correspond with larger size. Information from A. Carpio.
OCR for page 244
244
DISTRIBUTION
MICROLIVESTOCK
The original home of the wild guinea pig is believed to have been
the central highlands of Peru and Bolivia. Its domesticated descendants
are important as meat animals mainly in that same area, but, as noted,
they are also important in certain African and Asian countries.
A few strains are distributed worldwide as laboratory animals and
pets.
STATUS
Domesticated guinea pigs, as a whole, are in no danger of extinction,
although some rare strains are threatened.
HABITAT AND ENVIRONMENT
These extremely adaptable animals are found in temperate zones
and in the highland tropics, but they are usually kept indoors and
protected from the extremes of weather. In Lambayeque and other
departments of Peru, they are reared at elevations from sea level to
more than 4,000 m. In areas where they are raised, daily temperatures
fluctuate as much as 30°C. In the Bolivian or Peruvian puna region,
for instance, day temperatures can be 22°C, while night temperatures
are -7°C. However, they cannot survive freezing temperatures and
they may not perform well when exposed to the full tropical heat and
sunlight. Many people of the Peruvian highlands keep the animals in
darkness (for example, in wood boxes with little or no light).6
The animal's original wild habitat is believed to have been an area
of grasslands, forest edges, swamps, and rocks.
BIOLOGY
These herbivores can be raised on kitchen scraps, garden wastes,
and weedy vegetation plucked from backyards or roadsides. Andean
peasants mainly feed them potato peels, scraps of cabbage, lettuce,
carrot, wild grasses, corn stalks, and the foliage of miscellaneous wild
plants. Some barley and alfalfa is grown specifically for guinea pigs;
it is cut green and sold in small bundles in the markets.
6 Information from A. Carpio.
OCR for page 245
GUINEA PIG
245
The ultimate, user-friendly microlivestock, guinea pigs are quiet, odor-free, and fully at
home in houses. They are kept loose in thousands of dwellings in the Andes. A low sill
across the doorway just a few centimeters high is all that keeps them from straying.
(IDRC)
Guinea pigs mate throughout the year except when climate is
excessively adverse. Domestic breeds average 2-3 young per litter,
although larger litters sometimes occur. The gestation period is 65-70
days with an average of 67. Females come into estrus every 13-24
days, and there is a fertile postpartum estrus.
Females can become pregnant when merely 3 months old, and many
produce 4 litters every year from then on. In principle, a farmer
starting with 1 male and 10 females could see his herd grow to 3,000
. .
animal s in one year.
Newborns are so large that the female's pubic bones must separate
for the birth. They emerge fully developed, with fur and open eyes.
They look like miniature adults, and they start eating grass and other
feedstuffs within hours. (For this reason, babies orphaned at birth
have been known to survive.) Weaning may be reached as early as 21
days of age.
The life span in captivity is as long as 8 years, but animals used for
breeding usually live only 3.5 years.
OCR for page 246
246
MICROLIVESTOCK
SUPER GUIM" FIGS
Even in their native region, guinea pigs have traditionally
received little research attention. flowever, that began changing
in the 1970s with the onset of meat shortages in Peru. (For a
time the government restricted beef sales to only 15 days a
month. )
For instance, in 1972 Peru began a guinea pig improvement
project. Researchers from La Molina [rational Agrarian Univer-
sity traveled throughout Peru gathering many kinds of guinea
pig~short haired, long haired, black white, yellow, brown,
and even purple. Practically all the guinea pigs eaten in Peru
are home grown, and researchers observed that the bigger
ones were generally winding up in the stew, leaving the smaller
ones for breeding. The people inadvertently were making the
- :: A: : :::
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_.
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Lilia Zaldivar Abanto leads research on guinea pigs in Peru. Here she
shows some of the "super" guinea pigs. These animals are used to
improve the Peruvian stock through an ingenious government program:
every time a family eats one of their unimproved males, they are given
a fresh male of the giant stock. In time, therefore, the genes for large
size and quick growth will come to pervade Peru's guinea pig flocks.
(R. Kyle)
OCR for page 247
GUINEA PIG
animals smaller. (This is a common phenomenon for many
animals.)
To overcome it, the university research workers compared
the mature size and growth rates of all the different guinea
pigs. They selected and cross-bred the biggest, meatiest, and
fastest-grow~ng ones. This program, later taken over by Insti-
tuto DIacional de Investigacion y Promocion Agropecuaria
(IPIIPA), produced remarkable results. The starting animals
averaged little more than 0.5 kg the resulting ones averaged
almost 2 kg.
Peru's "super guinea pigs" are now getting international
recognition. They have been introduced into the highlands of
Honduras, where the animal is also part of the Indian cuisine.
The FAO has shipped some to the Dominican Republic. In
addition, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Colombia have all begun their
· · .
Own guinea pig Improvement programs.
Within Peru the government has established 11 breeding
stations to encourage the farming of guinea pigs for food. The
goal is to provide better stud males to the people so that future
animals will grow more quickly and reach a greater weight.
247
BEHAVIOR
Guinea pigs generally congregate in small groups, normally made
up of 5-10 adults. In favorable areas, however, such groups may
coalesce into large colonies. The animals communicate incessantly
among themselves, emitting a variety of squeaks and other noises.
Males, although good-natured with other species, often fight fiercely
among themselves.
USES
Guinea pigs are raised mainly for meat. Peru has about 20 million,
which annually provide 1~17,000 tons of meat (only 4,000 tons less
than Peru's sheep meat production).
Guinea pigs are used worldwide for studies on disease, nutrition,
heredity, and toxicology, as well as for the development of serums
and other biomedical research.
OCR for page 248
248
HUSBANDRY
MICROLIVESTOCK
Guinea pigs require so little space that a small cage or pit can house
up to 10 females and 1 male. They can be raised in cages with wire
floors of small mesh as well. The labor required is low. A colony of
1,000 females reportedly can be properly cared for by one person. A
layer of wood shavings, shredded paper, straw, and dried corncobs is
usually recommended for bedding. The droppings are odorless, so the
bedding does not need changing as often as with other animals. When
the diet mainly consists of greens, much urine is produced, and then
the beds have to be changed frequently.
When grown for meat, the young are weaned at 3 - weeks and are
ready for market in a matter of 1~13 weeks. Weight gain is rapid for
the first 4 6 weeks, and then decreases. The carcasses normally dress
out at about 65 percent, including the skin and legs. The meat's protein
content is approximately 21 percent.7
In a few regions of Peru, guinea pigs are "herded" on the open
range and retired at night into small adobe coops.
ADVANTAGES
This small, inoffensive animal rarely bites, is easy to manage, and
has no smell. It is an excellent supplemental meat supply. The improved
breeds cannot climb or jump so that they are easy to contain. (Primitive
"criollo" types, however, can jump.) If kept dry and given green
vegetation, grain, and water, it survives in many environments.
LIMITATIONS
A major constraint is consumer reluctance. Even in Latin America,
attempts to promote guinea pig consumption outside the Indian com-
munities have failed.
When raised in a clean environment and under normal feeding
conditions, guinea pigs thrive and reproduce and do not need routine
vaccinations or antibiotics that cattle, sheep, and pigs often require.
However, guinea pigs can be carriers of Chagas' disease and salmonella.
Further, they are susceptible to pneumonia if temperatures change
abruptly when conditions are wet. Coccidiosis and internal and external
parasites are also common.
Green forages and surplus fruits or by-products are critical to provide
vitamin C, which the animal is unable to synthesize for itself.
7 Information from S.D. Lukefahr.
OCR for page 249
GUINEA PIG
RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION NEEDS
249
Since the greatest concentration of guinea pigs is found in the Andes,
particular efforts should be directed towards this region. Already,
research on guinea pigs has begun in some universities and government
research stations in Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, and Bolivia,
but more work is needed on matters such as:
· Breeding "elite" stock for distribution;
· Feeding and nutritional-requirement trials, especially for creating
alternate feeds that peasants and commercial producers can use during
seasons when conventional feeds are hard to get;
· Diseases and parasites that may limit production in small farming
systems;
· Management practices concerning reproduction, housing, herd
size, and feeding; and
· The genetic basis for weight gain and productivity.
Some research should be directed towards developing rations or
introducing drought-resistant forages for the dry season because green
forage is needed year-round. A range of practical and economical diets
needs to be created.
Animal geneticists in Latin American countries should establish
"elite" populations that can provide superior stock throughout the
world. It can be anticipated that applying modern breeding methods
to existing improved strains will result in great advances in a relatively
short period and at little cost (see sidebar).
Three species of wild cavies (Cavia aperea, C. fulgida, and C.
tschudii), close relatives of the guinea pig, are native to South America
and are declining drastically. Research to preserve them is urgently
needed. C. aperea is a widely used item of food in rural Brazil and
other parts of South America.
OCR for page 250
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
guinea pig