Dietary energy of guinea fowl on laying performance and biochemical hematological parameters

The energy level is one of the main food components that greatly impact the production and reproductive performance of laying poultry. The increase of the energy in the breeding hen meal raises the laying rate and reduced the mean egg weight. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of variation in energy intake on indigenous guinea fowl breeder’s performances. A total of 168 females and 84 males fed since day old with 3 diets: Control, Poor energy (Poor-E), and Rich energy (Rich-E) were crossed at 23rd week old with a sex ratio of 2 females for 1 male. From the 32nd to the 39th week of age, 32 eggs per group were randomly taken to assess their external and internal quality. Blood samples were collected from all groups at the 22nd and 60th week of age for hematology and biochemical parameters assay. The data were processed by Graph Pad Prism 5.00.288 software and the ANOVA test was used for analysis. The means were compared by the Tukey HSD test and p˂0.05 was considered as the significance threshold. The results showed that the guinea fowls fed Rich-E consumed (88.43±0.28g/j) less feed (p<0.05) than those of the control group (91.88±0.61g/j). Poor-E raised (p<0.05) egg weight (39.33g vs 38.46g). However, this diet decreased the laying rate (47.92% vs 50.35%). The Rich-E diet reduced (p<0.05) the laying rate (33.5% vs 50.35%), and the egg weight (35.75g vs 38.46g). Hematocrit of Rich-E is significant (p<0.05) less than those of the control group. The serum total protein and albumin levels were higher (p<0.05) in Poor-E than those of the control group. This study showed that Poor-E diets improved laying rate, and egg weights.