Carcass, Organ Weights and Egg Quality Characteristics of Guinea Fowl Layers Fed Varying Levels of Butter Fly Pea Leaf (Centrosema Pubescent) Meal.

Abstract

<jats:p>This study was conducted to investigate the effects of different protein levels on growth of guinea fowl keets (Numidia meagris) of the same age under intensive system in a typical poultry house from 6th week to 12th week of age. They were fed commercial broiler starter for two weeks and maintained on same diet of 18% crude protein for 5 weeks of age and given water ad libitum. The birds were separated into three pens. One hundred and twenty old guinea fowls were assigned at grower period on 3 dietary protein levels of 14, 16 and 18% crude protein (CP) on same metabolizable energy level of 2800 kcal/ kg. The study conducted at the Poultry Unit of Teaching and Research Farm, Imo State Polytechnic was used to test the performance of the guinea fowl layer birds. The birds were killed at the owner’s farm by cutting the neck through the jugular vein. There was significant difference (P&lt;0.05) in feed intake between the three treatments. The internal organs for the treatments were not significantly different. Keywords: Carcass, Organ Weights, Egg Quality Characteristics, Guinea Fowl Layers, Butter Fly Pea Leaf (Centrosema Pubescent) Meal.</jats:p>

Comparative growth performance and carcass characteristics of guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) and three chicken genotypes

“…Similarly, the dressing percentage (DP) for poultry meat from the current study ranged from 72.2 to 74.8%, which is in agreement with the average DP value of 73% (Muth et al, 2006). Moreover, the 75.4% DP of the GF reared under intensive management system (Ahaotu et al, 2019) and 72.8% for PK at 15 weeks of age (Melesse et al, 2013) were in line with the current findings.…”

Comparative Study of Egg and Meat Quality of Guinea Fowl under Different tropical regions: A Review

“…The shell percentage of guinea fowl eggs was 15.23, and 15.60 % was found by (Vekić et al, 2018;Mohsenpour et al, 2020). Lower findings are 12.84 % reported by (Ahaotu et al, 2019), but there are also higher values, such as 18.3% (Zelleke et al, 2020).…”

“…Musundire et al (2017) reported that Guinea fowls outweighed chickens in terms of having higher body weight, carcass weight, cold dressed weight, and breast weight except for dressing percentage for both species (chickens and helmeted guinea fowls); proportions were comparable. A study by Ahaotu et al (2019) in Nigeria and a survey by Zelleke et al (2022) in Ethiopia reported a higher dressing percentage (75.4 and 73.8 %, respectively) for guinea fowl in comparison with a survey by Musundire et al (2017) in Zimbabwe that found that average was (64.1 %) only. The same trend observed for the breast percentage trait.…”

“…Nowaczewski et al (2008) reported a highly significant and positive correlation coefficient of 0.989 between egg weight and egg surface area, which means the heavier the egg is, the more extensive the surface area, which is consistent with the largest egg surface area in the royal purple and the smallest surface area in the white variety. A study by Ahaotu et al (2019) in Nigeria reported a higher egg surface area (67.48 cm3) for guinea fowl, in comparison with counterparts in a survey by Mohsenpour et al (2020) in Iran, who found that average was (58.73 cm3). External egg quality characteristics of Guinea fowl under different tropical regions are presented in Table (1).…”

“…et al (2020) found that the weight, thickness, and percentage of eggshells were higher (p<0.05) for guinea fowl as compared to other studied chicken genotypes. (Ahaotu et al (2019); Mohsenpour et al, 2020;Zelleke et al, 2020) reported that the shell weight of guinea fowl eggs was (6.17, 6.36, and 6.57), respectively, and lower values (5.83) were found by (Vekić et al, 2018). The shell percentage of guinea fowl eggs was 15.23, and 15.60 % was found by (Vekić et al, 2018;Mohsenpour et al, 2020).…”