After I posted about a man BBQing a guinea pig in a New York City park, an astute reader sent me a message saying The Last Supper by Zapata, in the Cuzco Cathedral shows the platter in front of Jesus holding a very large roasted guinea pig regarded as a delicacy and highly regarded for their taste.

They are also apparently a vehicle for trypanosomiasis.

Guinea pigs have been a reliable snack in parts of Ecuador, Peru and Colombia for generations. Called cuyes in Spanish, the animals are reportedly easier to raise and breed than chickens, and are eaten en-masse during key holidays.

Chagas disease, American trypanosomiasis, is caused by the protozoan parasite _Trypanosoma cruzi_ (_T. cruzi_).

According to a study recently published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, seasonal feasts may be “bottlenecking” domestic populations of the tasty rodents, causing them to become the ideal middlemen for ensuring that most kissing bugs in a region are carrying_T. cruzi_.