Challenges of genetic improvement in alpacas facing new textile market demands

The alpaca fiber textile market demands raw material with high standards of quality and sustainability. Although alpaca's commercial niches have created and gained their own space, they continue to compete in terms of quality-price with other fibers like cashmere, mohair, cotton, and even synthetic fibers—though the latter diverge from the concepts of quality and sustainability.

The alpaca textile market is supplied by a well-established supply chain, whose raw material is harvested in the Andes, above 3,800 meters above sea level. However, we must ask: Is the raw material quality what the market needs, or can we reinforce and leverage the textile market with genetic improvement techniques? In this context, when we speak of genetic improvement of the fiber, we refer to improving both production quantity and quality. Quantity: refers to production or yield in kg/alpaca and quality: refers to textile properties, primarily thickness (diameter) and fiber structure (medullation).

To achieve one or both needs, we must overcome several challenges:

Socio-cultural Challenge: It is essential to sensitize alpaca producers to promote coordinated work between industry, producers, and academia. Genetic improvement must address the enhancement of fiber fineness and softness without compromising fleece weight. Furthermore, the challenge will consist of strengthening raw material purchases by valuing the combination of quality and weight in the Andes. The producer must be part of a holistic improvement program that looks after the quality of the raw material and the productive yields of the herd.

Technical Challenge: Genetic improvement initiatives need to expand through user-friendly and accessible technological mechanisms (software) for alpaca producers. It is indispensable to include the largest possible number of alpacas under registration to produce fiber with desirable characteristics. As more animals undergo fiber analysis, the probability of identifying the best breeders for the next generation of alpacas increases.

Biotechnological Challenge: Alpacas have reproductive particularities such as induced ovulation and low fertility and birth rates. Genetic improvement allows for the identification of specimens with desirable textile properties; however, to intensively reproduce good genetics, it is also necessary to refine embryo transfer and especially artificial inseminationensuring acceptable fertility and birth ratios. These two techniques would significantly accelerate genetic progress.

Molecular Challenge: Alpaca fiber has extraordinary properties regarding softness, comfort, and, above all, color diversity. But it requires a lot of labor for categorization and classification. This is because the fiber has great variability within each animal and even more so at a population level; in this sense, it is necessary to increase the uniformity of quality and color. This goes beyond just selecting animals by phenotype; it requires the understanding and identification of the genes that control these characteristics. Molecular studies can constitute a key tool for identifying genes that control both fleece quality and color variability.

"The fabrics on the counter depend on textile engineering, but they are born in the strands of DNA"

Fig 1. Variability of alpaca fiber diameter, a challenge for genetic improvement.