Characterization of Physical Body Traits and Carcass Evaluation of Guinea Fowl in a Humid Tropical Environment

A total of 240 day-old keets of two varieties of guinea fowl generated from a base population of 120 adult guinea fowl were used in a randomized complete block design to characterize physical body traits and carcass evaluation of the birds. Parameters used in the characterization include; thigh length, shank length, breast length, body girth, growth rate and carcass traits. Results indicate that mean values of body weight and linear body traits showed no significant (P > 0.05) difference among progeny groups. The correlation among different body traits in all progenies were positive and highly significant (P < 0.05). The coefficient of determination for the progenies were PL/PL (91.9), La/La (91.9) depicting the progeny as fast growing native guinea fowl. The entire carcass yield measured were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in Pearl when compared with Lavender progeny. This suggests that Pearl guinea fowl may be suited for improvement of meat type bird in the humid tropics.