No abstract

In order to promote farming of guinea fowl and to diversify the sources of income of Ivorian farmers, a survey was conducted in 2016 in 15 regions (197 farmers) out of a total of 31 regions in Ivory Coast. The aims were 1) to establish a better knowledge of guinea fowl farming; 2) to assess the level of technical knowledge of farmers; and 3) to establish a global typology of farmers based on their socio-economic profile, the goal of the farming (sale or consumption), and their level of technical knowledge. The sampling was realized according to a snowball type design (chain referral sampling method) a non-probabilistic method where farmers were selected not from a sampling frame but from the friendship network of existing farmers of the sample. Guinea fowl farming was undertaken by persons from all the social levels with no distinctions due to sex, religion, ethnic group, or level of education. For farmers with more than 48 guinea fowl and farmers who were Muslims, farming was a source of income. Owners of guinea fowl under 60 yr old, Christians and atheists kept a part of their production for their own consumption and marketed the remainder of the flock. Incubation was primarily accomplished by a laying hen, with an estimated hatching rate of 72%. In our survey, 68.5% of the farmers had a good practical knowledge of guinea fowl farming. The identified weaknesses of guinea fowl farming in the regions where the survey took place were the absence of knowledge of guinea fowl farming and the poverty of farmers who could not afford incubators nor provide a good nutrition to their animals. The future development of this farming will have to take into account all these weaknesses that are also limitations to this development.

A total of 144 French selected breed (Galor) female guinea fowl (GF) of 42 wk of age were enrolled for a feeding trial of 15, 30, and 45 D duration. The birds were randomly assigned to 18 cages, each containing 8 birds. A total of 3 isonitrogenous and isocaloric dietary treatments were trialed, each diet comprising 6 replications (cages), which meant a total of 48 birds per diet. The GF were fed either a control diet C (commercial diet “FACI ponte 20”, SIPRA, Ivory Coast, usually used for all poultry species) or the diet C supplemented with 5% Euphorbia heterophylla seeds (diet E) and the diet C supplemented with 5% Hevea seed meal ( Hevea brasiliensis ) (diet H). Animal performance were assessed for 3 periods (days 0 to 15, 0 to 30, and 0 to 45), and egg quality and composition were assessed at 15, 30, and 45 D of the trial. The results indicated no mortality during the trial. The laying rate was the highest (43.9%) with diet E and the lowest with diet C (32.5%), the laying rate with diet H being intermediate (38.5%). Diet E containing Euphorbia seeds led to a reduced cholesterol content of the eggs. Additionally, inclusion of Euphorbia seeds and, to a lesser extent, of the Hevea seed meal in the diet led to n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid enriched GF eggs, with thereby, improved nutritional value. A sensory test did not find any difference between the 3 diets on trial.

Guinea fowl production is increasing in developing countries and has a crucial role in the fight against poverty. However, the feed cost is very high, especially the soya bean meal cost, and farmers cannot afford to buy commercial feed. Consequently, animals do not receive feed adapted to their nutritional needs and they exhibit poor performance. The aim of this paper is to partially substitute soya bean meal by local by-products, discarded, in abundant supply and not used in human nutrition. French Galor guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) and local African guinea fowl (150 birds per breed) were reared for 16 weeks and fed the same starter diet for the initial 4 weeks. From 4 weeks of age, experimental birds from each breed were randomly assigned to three grower isoproteic and isolipidic dietary treatments, each containing five replications (floor pens); each replication included 10 birds of the same breed. The guinea fowl of each breed were fed either control grower diet using soya bean meal as the protein supplement GS, or trial grower diet GN (soya bean meal supplement partially substituted by 15% cashew nut (Anacardium occidentale) meal) or trial grower diet GH (soya bean meal supplement partially substituted by 15% hevea seed (Hevea brasiliensis) meal). The results indicated that hevea seed meal contained a high content of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) (21.2% of total fatty acids (FAs)). The use of hevea seed meal in guinea fowl grower diet was found to exert no adverse effect on growth performance and carcass yield. However, the use of cashew nut meal led to negative effects on performance like daily weight gain and feed conversion ratio. Therefore, cashew nut meal cannot be considered as a suitable partial substitute for soya bean meal in diets. The use of hevea seed meal led to a very low abdominal fat proportion and low blood triglyceride and cholesterol content. Additionally, inclusion of dietary hevea seed meal resulted in guinea fowl meat enriched in PUFAs, especially n-3 FAs, thereby significantly improving the nutritional value.

The essay assessed Borassus aethiopum (B.a) ripe fruits' dried pulp effect on egg yolk coloration. First, thirty-six Harco laying hens, 42 weeks old with similar weight (α=0.05) were allotted in 12 cages of 4m 2 (2m x 2m, respectively for length x width) each. Second, 4 laying hens' diets were formulated; a yellow corn-based diet (YC), a white corn-based diet (WC), a white corn-based diet supplemented with 10% of B.a mature fruits' dried pulp (WC+10%B.a), and finally a white corn-based diet supplemented with 20% of B.a ripe fruits' dried pulp (WC+10%B.a). During the evaluations, similar eggs for weights were analyzed. As a result, rich pigment diets formed a group and produced the heaviest egg yolk compared to the WC diet, for 13.94+0.16 g versus 13.64+0.16 g. Whereas, WC diet delivered the heaviest albumin weights, 31.92+0.33 g versus 29.27+0.33 g for WC+10%B.a which had the lightest weight. Looking at eggs' yolks color, Roche yolk color fan distinguished just 2 levels whose were the pale egg yolk from WC graded 1, and the intense colored yolks group graded 6. A spectrophotometer reflectance method helped for better yolks color distinctions. The yolks' yellow colors from WC+10%B.a (b*=52.29), WC+20%B.a (b*=52.49) and YC (b*=52.22) were similar (p=0.7278). But, the WC+10%B.a diet egg yolk color was significantly higher than that of WC (b*=20.70; p<0.0001). In conclusion, Borassus aethiopum mature fruits' dried pulp can be incorporated into laying hens feed as natural pigments' source.