Characterization of the guinea pig production system of the Mocha canton, Ecuador

Abstract

The aim of this study was to characterize the guinea pig production system in the Mocha canton, Ecuador. All 124 producers in the canton were surveyed. A population of 14 165 ± 130 guinea pigs was found, of which 85.5% are commercial lines and 14.5% are native. The most widely used breeding system was the Family-Commercial (up to 100 guinea pigs) with 50.8% of the producers, followed by the Commercial system (more than 100 guinea pigs) with 37.9%, and the Family system (up to 25 guinea pigs) with 11.3%. Breeding is done mostly by women (76.6%). The survey showed that 83.1% of the producers have received training courses on raising guinea pigs. The facilities in ponds are the most used (54.8%), followed by cages (31.5%) and mixed (13.7%). The facilities are cleaned monthly (67.8%), biweekly (28.2%) or weekly (4.0%). Guinea pigs are mostly marketed biweekly (66.1%) in the local market. The most frequent pathologies are salmonellosis (63.7%) and lice (83.1%).