Producing alpaca fibre for the textile industry

Abstract

The textile industry has changed its way of buying fibre, looking for more fine fibre and paying better prices for the finer categories. A change is needed in the type of animal that is bred, e.g. an alpaca that produces more and finer fibre. Traditional methods of genetic improvement have been applied in Peru with no tangible results so it is necessary to use modern methods such as quantitative genetics. The objectives of selection should be focused on the current market, selecting the best animals and reproducing them with advanced techniques achieving its rapid distribution within the alpaca herds of Peru. Pacomarca is an experimental ranch founded by the INCA group with the aim of acting as a selection nucleus from which genetic improvement for alpaca fibre can spread throughout the rural communities in the Peruvian Altiplano. State-of-the-art techniques in animal science, such as performance recording or assisted reproduction including embryo transfer, are applied to demonstrate their usefulness in the Altiplano conditions. Pacomarca has developed useful software (Paco Pro) to carry out the integral processing of production and reproduction data. Mating is carried out individually, gestation is diagnosed via ultrasound, breeding values estimated from a modern genetic evaluation are used for selection and embryo transfer is applied to increase the selection intensity.