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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%).