Growth Response and Economics of Production of Guinea Fowls Fed Diets Containing Blend of Bovine Blood and Cassava Meal

An experiment of 18-week feeding trial was conducted to assess the effect of four different types of blend of blood and cassava meal, hereafter referred to as BBLOCAM, to partially replace maize on the growth performance and economics of production of guinea fowls. Two hundred and eighty five, five-week old local keets with a mean weight of 85.2g were randomly allocated to five dietary treatments in a Completely Randomized Design. Each treatment was replicated three times, with 19 guinea keets per replicate. The dietary treatments consisted of T1 (the control diet), which contained maize as the main energy source; T2 (BBLOCAM II, 25 units blood: 100 units cassava flour:100 units water), T3 (BBLOCAM III, 50 units blood: 100 units cassava flour 100 units water), T4 (BBLOCAM IV, 75 units blood: 100 units cassava flour: 100 units water) and T5 (BBLOCAM V, 100 units blood: 100 units cassava flour: 100 units water). Feed and water were provided ad libitum. The mean feed consumption values per bird for the 18-week period were 5.38, 5.50, 5.48, 5.46 and 5.39 Kg for T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 diets respectively with a corresponding mean daily feed intakes of 42.63g (T1), 43.56g (T2), 43.50g (T3), 43.33g (T4) and 42.69g (T5). There were no significant (P>0.05) differences among treatment means for body weight gain. The mean body weight gain was 0.996 Kg, 0.958 Kg, 0.983 Kg, 0.965 Kg and 0.943 Kg for the dietary treatments of T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 respectively. The feed conversion ratio, gastrointestinal tract, liver, gizzard with exception of carcass weight were statistically (P>0.05) similar among treatment means. The results indicated that, using BBLOCAM-base diets could result in economic savings up to GH¢ 70.00 per metric tonne and could lead to increase production of guinea fowls making the prices of guinea fowls and their products more affordable to the ordinary Ghanaian.