Comparación de la calidad de las fibras de Vicugna pacos (Alpaca) y Lama glama (Llama)

Abstract

The fiber quality from ten body regions (dorsal neck -RC1-, wither -RC2-, back -RC3-, rump -RC4-, ventral neck -RC5-, caudal part of the scapula -RC6- , flank -RC7-, caudal thigh -RC8-, forearm -RC9- and hock dorsal part-RC10-) of 35 alpacas (Vicugna pacos) and 45 llamas (Lama glama) were evaluated. Samples were collected from the left side of the animals before shearing. Animals belonged to the community tourism project Palacio Real (Chimborazo province, Ecuador). Absolute length (A), relative length (LR), number of crimps (NR), diameter (D) and medullation rate (M) were measured in ten randomly selected fibers from each body region. Repeated measures ANOVA was performed to evaluate the effects of body region and sex. Additionally, Pearson's coefficient was used to calculate correlations between parameters. No differences in LR, NR, D and M between llamas and alpacas in any of the studied body regions were observed. Differences in LA from RC4 between females from the two studied species were observed. Regarding gender effects within each species, no differences for NR, D and M in any of the studied body regions were observed. Nevertheless, LA and LR differences in llama RC5 were detected. In addition, LR differences were also observed in llama RC8. In conclusion, results the best quality fiber was found inRC6 for both species, whereas the worst was found in RC10. Finally, LA and LR as well as D and M were highly correlated.