Growth performance of guinea fowl fed diets containing yellow maize, millet and white sorghum as energy sources and raised under intensive system

Abstract

This study investigated growth performance of guinea fowl fed diets containing 3 cereal grains as energy sources in comparison to commercial broiler diets. Birds were raised under intensive system from 3 to 16 weeks of age. A completely randomized design was used where 160 keets were randomly assigned to 4 dietary treatments. Each treatment had 40 birds with 4 replicates of 10 birds each. Data were analyzed using General Linear Model Procedure of Statistical Analysis Software (version 9.0). The results showed that dietary treatment did not (P>0.05) influence body length, body circumference, wing stretch, shank length and neck length of guinea fowl. From 3 to 16 weeks of age feed intake was significantly (P<0.0001) lower for control diet (13714.79±209.65 g) than maize (16085±209.65 g), millet (1609.63±209.65 g) and sorghum (15872±209.65 g) diets. Furthermore, FCR was significantly (P<0.0001) lower on control diet (11.33±0.37) than maize (13.91±0.37), millet (14.90±0.37) and sorghum (13.72±0.37) diets. Average weekly body weight gain was significantly (P<0.05) lower for birds on millet diet (82.98±2.18 g) than birds on control (93.14±2.18 g), maize (89.25±2.18 g) and sorghum (89.03±2.18 g) diets. These results suggest that cereal grains can be used in guinea fowl diets without affecting performance.