Studies of Grey Breasted Helmet Guineafowl (Numida meleagris galeata Pallas) in Nigeria

SummaryThere are about 43.60 million guineafowl maintained on free-range in Nigerian villages and farm-steads. There are no social, religious and cultural taboos against eating guineafowl in Nigeria.The food of guineafowl in nature, its protein requirements in captivity, its diseases as well as reproductive potentials are studied. In nature, the food of N.m. galeata comprised grass seeds (35%), insects (21.6%), Cyperus bulbs (17.4%), fruits (13.3%), leaves (9.9%), pebbles (1.9%) and water infected with food (3%). The mean group sizes(and densities in brackets) were between 8.25 (11.94/Km2) and 9·13 (11.85/Km2) during the dry season and from 4.64 (13.49/Km2) to 6.17 (25.91/Km2) during the rains.The major helminth parasites of N. m. galeata are Heterakis gallinarum, Ascaridia galli, Capillaria caudinflata, Raillietina tetragona, and R. echinobothrida, while Eimeria species was the most serious gastrointestinal protozoan parasite.It is recommended that if the metabolizeable energy of feed is about 3.0 Kcal/g then 24% protein level is suitable for brooding guineafowl and 20–18% protein level is suitable for guineafowl at the grower stage. This should be reduced to 16% protein level for adult birds on free-range.The meat production potential of guineafowl is favourable. The wild bird weighs 0.9 ± 0.16kg and in captivity the bird weighs up to 1.27 ± 0.86kg. The dressed carcase is made up of breast (37%), thigh (17%), wings (14%), drumstick (13%), ribs (10%) and back (9%). The carcase protein is 28.77%, ash content is 5.6% and ether extract is 2.54%. The killing out percentage is 82.82% and the edible carcase is 52.80% of live weight.The development of guineafowl for commercial production in Africa requires multi-disciplinary team work consisting of expert veterinarians, parasitologists, nutritionists, physiologists and anatomists all working under the overall coordination of an animal geneticist and/or breeder. Concerted efforts must also aim at conserving guineafowl for sport-hunting in natural areas; this is possible through enforcement of legislation against indiscriminate trapping, egg collection, and bush burning particularly in the National Parks and Game Reserves.