Crossbreeding Effect on Growth Traits at 8 Weeks of Age in Pearl and Lavender Guinea Fowl and their Reciprocal Crosses in a Humid Tropical Environment

A total of 408 day old keets generated from direct and reciprocal crossing of two colour variants of indigenous guinea fowl were used to investigate the effect of crossbreeding on growth at 8 weeks of age in the humid tropical environment. The progeny groups produced were homogenous Pearl variant main cross (PL X PL), homogenous Lavender variant main cross (La X La), Pearl variant reciprocal cross PL X La and Lavender Variant reciprocal cross (La X PL). The experiment was a randomized complete block design with progeny group as treatment and hatch as block. The La X PL progeny had a better FCR compared with other crossbred and their reciprocal crosses indicating that the keets may be good converters of feed. There were no significant difference (P > 0.05) in the day-old body weight of the progeny groups, however, significant difference (P < 0.05) was noticed in the BWT of the various progeny groups. The growth rate of the genetic groups was PL X PL (131%), La X La (119%), PL X La (140%) and La X PL (150%). The coefficient of determination R2 for reciprocal crosses were La X PL (97.5), PL X La (97.5) than that of main crosses PL X PL (95.3) La X La (95.4), depicting the La X PL progeny as fast growing indigenous guinea fowl. The correlation among different body traits in all the progeny were positive and highly significant (P < 0.05). The positive correlation observed among characters in the four progeny groups implies that improvement in any of the traits leads to corresponding improvement in the other. The result indicates the overall superiority of Lavender-sired progeny over the progeny of the other variety and may be used to develop native foundation stock for production of broiler type guinea fowl.