Comparison of growth and morphological parameters of guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) raised on concrete and earth floor finishes in Botswana

摘要

Theaimofthisstudywastoinvestigatetheeffectsoffloorfinishongrowthandmorphologicalparametersofguineafowlkeets(Numidameleagris)from5to12weeksofageinBotswana.Sixty(60)keetsofthesameagewereraisedasonemobuntil4weeksofageunderintensivesysteminatypicalpoultryhouse.Theywerefedcommercialchickstartermashandwateradlibitum.Atthebeginningofthe5thweekkeetsweredividedintotwoequalgroupsbasedonweight.Onegroupwasrandomlychosenandhousedinatypicalpoultryhousewithconcretefloorfinishwhiletheremaininggroupwashousedinatypicalpoultryhousebutwithearthfloorfinishi.e.bareground.Keetsinthehousewithconcretefloorfinishwereraisedunderdeeplittersystemusingsawdustwhichwaschangedevery2weeks.Bothgroupswerefedgrowermashandwateradlibitum.Thefollowingbiometricalmeasurementswerecollectedweeklyfromhatchingto12weeksofage:bodyweight,necklength,hipwidth,rumpheight,metatarsallength,bodylengthandstretchedwinglengthinallkeets.ThedatawereanalysedusingtheGeneralLinearModelProcedureinStatisticalAnalysisSystembecauseafewkeetsdiedbeforeandafterthegroupswereseparated.Thereportedleastsquaresmeanswereseparatedusingt-test.Bodyweight,necklength,hipwidth,rumpheight,metatarsallength,bodylengthandstretchedwinglengthsignificantly(p0.05)increasedfrom5to12weeksofage,forconcreteandearthfloor,respectively.Generally,thesetraitsdidnotdiffersignificantlybetweenconcreteandearthflooratthesamestageofgrowthanddevelopment.Keetsraisedunderconcreteandearthfloorfinishescanbringthesameoutputhenceforbetterprofititisbettertochooseearththanconcretefloorfinish,whichincreasesproductioncostsbecauseofthepurchaseofbuildingmaterialsrequiredforthelatterfloorfinish.