Domestic cavies (or guinea pigs) provide a high-quality meat source with high levels of protein in similar quantity as chicken meat. Here, Brigitte Maass explains how an innovation platform linking cavy producers and other organizations is helping to bridge molecular science with livestock production.

An Africa Biosciences Challenge Fund (ACBF) project (led by the BecA-ILRI Hub, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, the University of Dschang, and the Université Evangélique en Afrique) is looking at ways to improve alternative and rapid access to food and income in Cameroon and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by improving cavy production.

In a recent meeting of the Regional Cavy Innovation Platform in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Bertin Bisimwa, a former BecA-ILRI Hub ABCF fellow, explained to farmers and other participants the consequences his molecular studies of cavies in the province should have for their keeping of this…