diff --git a/bluepymm/parse_files.py b/bluepymm/parse_files.py
index 5f04a400ab4c904351e73eabf5ec569cb9896e3f..af5c2a6fe5caa969a8f3947d3d8064885c17c4a5 100644
--- a/bluepymm/parse_files.py
+++ b/bluepymm/parse_files.py
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ def read_mm_recipe(recipe_filename):
                                     'in recipe, script cant to '
                                     'handle this case')
 
-                            yield (int(layer.attrib['id']),
+                            yield (layer.attrib['id'],
                                    structural_type.attrib['id'],
                                    electro_type.attrib['id'])
 
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ def xmlmorphinfo_from_xml(xml_morph):
     mtype = xml_morph.findtext('mtype')
     msubtype = xml_morph.findtext('msubtype')
     fullmtype = '%s:%s' % (mtype, msubtype) if msubtype != '' else mtype
-    layer = int(xml_morph.findtext('layer'))
+    layer = xml_morph.findtext('layer')
     return (name, fullmtype, mtype, msubtype, layer)
 
 
diff --git a/bluepymm/tests/examples/simple1/data/emodels_dir/subdir/emodel_etype_map.json b/bluepymm/tests/examples/simple1/data/emodels_dir/subdir/emodel_etype_map.json
index 443a4dca80a2ff7806e02e8e2ddf06472623249a..c6be4f3b0603bdc0fd1af5744ed432ff59fc42a2 100644
--- a/bluepymm/tests/examples/simple1/data/emodels_dir/subdir/emodel_etype_map.json
+++ b/bluepymm/tests/examples/simple1/data/emodels_dir/subdir/emodel_etype_map.json
@@ -2,11 +2,11 @@
     "emodel1": {
         "mm_recipe": "emodel1",
         "etype": "etype1",
-        "layer": [1,2]
+        "layer": ["1","str1"]
     },
     "emodel2": {
         "mm_recipe": "emodel2",
         "etype": "etype2",
-        "layer": [1,2]
+        "layer": ["1","2"]
     }
 }