The Biology of the Guinea Pig

Joseph E. Wagner

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780127300504
• eBook ISBN: 9781483289328
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Zoology
• Index: Biological Sciences

The Biology of the Guinea Pig focuses on the use of the guinea pig as a substrate in research. This book provides a comprehensive coverage of material related to applied care and management of guinea pigs and their diseases. Topics on guinea pig behavior, genetics, specific pathogen-free technique, biomethodology, and colony husbandry are also covered. This text likewise deals with the noninduced diseases of guinea pigs and use of the guinea pig in nutrition research, otologic research, toxicology, and teratology. This publication is beneficial to the general scientific community that includes investigators using or considering the use of guinea pigs in research, veterinarians, students of veterinary medicine, professionals concerned with the care and management of guinea pigs, commercial producers of guinea pigs, and cavy fanciers.

Chapter 1

Introduction and Taxonomy

Joseph E. Wagner

Publisher Summary

The importance of guinea pig to medical research is symbolized by its synonymity with experimental subject in the English language. The common name of guinea pig, cavy, probably derives from its generic name, Cavia. It is interesting to note that people with a fancy interest in Cavia porcellus have adopted the more scientific terminology cavy, while the research community continues to utilize guinea pig, a term of obscure origin. At present, most of the guinea pigs raised in the United States are for laboratory use; however, guinea pigs raised for fancy and companion uses are also popular. While the path of the guinea pig from barren floor of the earthen hut of the Andean native to the research laboratory cannot be traced with accuracy, this path has involved its use as a staple food, a fancy show species, and a pet or companion animal.

I. Introduction

II. History and Etymology

III. Taxonomy

References

I INTRODUCTION

The importance of the guinea pig to medical research is symbolized by its synonymity with “experimental subject” in the English language. One of the earliest records in English concerning the biology of the guinea pig is that of Goldsmith (1791). Lavoisier in 1780 (Lane-Petter, 1963) is commonly credited with being one of the first to use the guinea pig in research, having used it to measure heat production.

Weir (1974) reviewed the origin of the domestic guinea pig and its interrelationships with other species of cavies. The wild guinea pig (Cavia aperea) is widely distributed in Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil (Weir, 1970). Another wild ancestor, C. cutleri, is still found in Peru (Paterson, 1972). Cumberland (1886) stated “I do not believe that the Cavy ever existed in Brazil as a domestic animal, in the sense of being used for food, as stated by some naturalists, or that it was known there at all before the arrival of the Portuguese.”

Wild guinea pigs inhabit open grassland, where they nest and make paths in taller vegetation. They feed in more open areas at dawn and dusk (Weir, 1970). They live in a small societies of from several to several dozen individuals. Waterhouse (1848) related the guinea pig’s one useful property was that of banishing rats from its vicinity. The guinea pig is considered a culinary delight by the natives of the Bolivian and Peruvian high country, where the animal is killed, scalded, and scraped to remove the fur and then either roasted or fried whole and served with a hot sauce known as picante.

II HISTORY AND ETYMOLOGY

The most extensive inquiry into the history of the guinea pig outside of South America is that of Cumberland (1886), and the second edition of that work by Gardner (1913). Cumberland (1886) concluded that the original importers of the cavy into Europe were probably responsible for the nomen “guinea pig.” According to Cumberland (1886):

Previous to the arrival of Europeans on the West Coast of South America, the only domestic animals which could be used as food were the llama, alpaca, Coy or Guinea Pig, and a bird called Tuya, about the size of a large duck. Under these circumstances, Cavies must have been of great importance as a food supply, and are in fact so mentioned by the early writers, who, however, generally speak of them as rabbits (Conejo), the name by which they are still called by those Peruvians and Bolivians who speak Spanish.

Velasco, in his “Historia de Quito,” says that the Indians had great numbers of Cavies in their houses. We may fairly conclude that they would bestow the same elaborate care in “breeding and selecting these small rodents as we know they bestowed upon the llamas and alpacas.” We are told that these latter animals were kept in separate flocks of different colours; and if, by any chance, a young one was born of a wrong colour, it was immediately moved into a different flock.

If this system were applied to the Cavies, many distinct varieties would be evolved. This careful breeding of the Cavy, and a very remote period for its first domestication, are circumstances both needed to account for the extremely artificial colour and marking of the animals; and we may also reason inversely, from the permanence and obstinate irregularity of the markings, as well as from the colours, so distinct from any wild form, that the domestication took place at a very remote epoch.

We are at first puzzled to know how this little animal, which is neither a pig nor a native of Guinea, came by its absurd misnomer. This is, however, soon explained, if we consider the circumstances under which Europeans must have made its acquaintance. The Spaniards, on their first going into the Peruvian markets, would see exposed for sale, in large numbers, a little animal looking remarkably like a sucking pig, and would give it that name, to which they would add the distinctive term, “Indian,” because the early navigators spoke of South America as a part of the Indies: thus, we have Porco da India, Porcella da India, Cochon d’Inde, and Topsell’s term, “the Indian Little Pig Coney.” The name of “Guinea Pig” is of a later date, and was, probably a further confusion of our own, caused by the circumstance that we had more traffic with the coast of Guinea than with that of South America, and also were accustomed to consider Guinea as a part of the Indies. The pig-like appearance of which I have spoken results from the mode of preparing Cavies for cooking–namely, by scalding and scraping them in the same manner as we should treat a pig.

The Guinea Pig was first described scientifically by Aldrovandus, and his contemporary, Gesner. Aldrovandus was born A.D. 1522, and died in 1607. Gesner was born in 1516, and died in 1605. The great victory of Pizarro over the Peruvians, when he seized the person of the Inca, and decided the fate of the country, was gained on 16th November, 1532, shortly after the Spaniards arrived in Peru. It is clear, therefore, that the figures of the Guinea Pig, and the descriptions of them, which still accurately represent and describe the animal, must have been done soon after its arrival in Europe. It is usual to fix this event, vaguely, as occurring about fifty years after the discovery of Peru, or about A.D. 1580.

In Topsell’s “Historie of Foure-footed Beastes, from Gesner and Others,” 1607, which contains what I believe to be the first English reference to the Guinea Pig, it is called “the Indian Little Pig Coney.” The description, which I conclude is Gesner’s, is as follows: “Five claws upon a foot behind, and six before: teeth like a mouse, and no tail, and the colours variable. I have seen them all white and all yellow, and also different from both these.” Topsell’s “Gesner” makes a curious mistake as to the number of claws-mine certainly have only three on a foot behind, and four before. It is clear that the pure white breed existed at this early period, and was, probably, a result of Peruvian cultivation under the Incas.

Pennant, feeling, no doubt, the inappropriateness of the term “Guinea Pig,” called this animal the “Restless Cavy.” This name is, however, inaccurate, for Cavies, when there is no exciting cause, such as fear or hunger, are very quiet animals, and will lie side by side for hours, until one or other of these disturbing causes rouses them to activity. The date of the first edition of Pennant’s “Hist. Quad.” is 1781. It is evident that Pennant has followed Buffon, who, in this instance at least, is not a safe guide. He says: “Colour white, varied with orange and black in irregular blotches; no tail; inhabits Brazil; a restless, grumbling little animal, perpetually running from corner to corner; breeds when two months old, has from four t...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• CONTRIBUTORS
• Copyright
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Introduction and Taxonomy
• Chapter 2: Care and Management
• Chapter 3: Biomethodology
• Chapter 4: Germfree and Specific Pathogen-Free
• Chapter 5: Behavior
• Chapter 6: Anatomy
• Chapter 7: Physiology
• Chapter 8: Genetics
• Chapter 9: Bacterial, Mycoplasma, and Rickettsial Diseases
• Chapter 10: Viral and Chlamydial Diseases
• Chapter 11: Mycoses
• Chapter 12: Protozoan Parasites
• Chapter 13: Helminth Parasites
• Chapter 14: The Arthropod Parasites of the Genus Cavia
• Chapter 15: Neoplastic Diseases
• Chapter 16: Miscellaneous Disease Conditions of Guinea Pigs
• Chapter 17: Nutrition, Nutritional Diseases, and Nutrition Research Applications
• Chapter 18: Toxicology and Teratology
• Chapter 19: Auditory Research
• Subject Index