Fibre quality of South American camelids in Argentina: a review
Argentina’s annual camelidfibre production is estimated at 60 000 kg for llama (Lama glama), somewhat more than 2 000 kg for gua-naco (Lama guanicoe) and about 845 kg for vicuña (Vicugna vicugna). The potential for increasing these amounts is huge consideringthat barely 30 percent of llamas are shor...
| Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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| Formato: | info:ar-repo/semantics/artículo |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
FAO
2017
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/1197 http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4736t.pdf |
| Sumario: | Argentina’s annual camelidfibre production is estimated at 60 000 kg for llama (Lama glama), somewhat more than 2 000 kg for gua-naco (Lama guanicoe) and about 845 kg for vicuña (Vicugna vicugna). The potential for increasing these amounts is huge consideringthat barely 30 percent of llamas are shorn and considering the size of the wild camelid population in the country. A compilation ofpublished and unpublished work confirms that almost 50 percent of the llamas are single-coated, about 40 percent have whitefleecesand that averagefibre diameter is about 22 μm in the main llama production area. In general, there is a wide variation infleece weightsandfibre quality between and within herds. However, a llamafleece classing and pricing system is not yet in place to motivate imple-mentation of such programmes. Guanaco and vicuñafleeces are double-coated but thefine undercoat represents more than 80 percent ofthefleece weight. The proportion of downfibre remaining after mechanical dehairing is only 50 percent in guanacos and 70 percent invicuñas. The guanaco undercoatfibre diameter is about 16 μm and vicuñafibre diameter is typically between 13 and 14 μm. Bothfibresare relatively short. Research is needed to establish optimum shearing season and shearing frequency that results infibre qualitydemanded for handcraft and industry in each of the three species. |
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