TY - JOUR AU - Cornelio A. Rosales Jaramill AU - Ermes R. Rodas Carpi AU - Pedro E. Nieto Escandón AU - Carlos S. Torres Inga AU - Burgos G. Gordillo Guambana AU - Christian Aucapiña AU - Danny Marín PY - 2018/06/27 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Removal of Penile Spicules of Covies (Cavia porcellus) and its Effect on Weight Gain and Aggressiveness JF - Revista de Producción Animal JA - RPA VL - 30 IS - 1 SE - Salud Animal DO - UR - https://revistas.reduc.edu.cu/index.php/rpa/article/view/2408 AB - This research took place on Irquis Farm, University of Cuenca, Victoria del Portete parish, Cuenca canton, prov-ince of Anzuay, Ecuador. The effects of penile spicule extirpation on weight gain and aggressiveness, and damage caused to the carcass at the beginning of growing/fattening were studied. The study consisted of three treatments: whole animals without castration, used as controls (T1); animals with extirpation of the glans´s spicules (T2); and chemically castrated animals, using 0.5 ml of 2% alcohol with iodine, directly injected in each testicle (T3). A total of 90 animals were included, following a randomized block design with six treatments and five replicas. The diet consisted of forage mixture of 33-35% dry matter, and a commercial feed supplement administered ad libitum. A co-variance analysis (ANACOVA) was made using the initial weight as co-variable. The final weight was significantly influenced by the treatment; the Tukey´s test resulted in higher final weight in T2, followed by T1. Their behavior was significantly different from T3 (P < 0.05). In relation to aggressiveness expressed in carcass damage, no signifi-cant differences were observed, according to Chi-square test (P > 0.05). ER -