Variability among Body Shape Characters in adult Guinea Fowl (Numida meleagris L.)

Morphometric traits (body length, wing length, neck length, shank length, thigh length, keel length, chest circumference) and body weight obtained from 82 adult (both sexes) Nigerian indigenous guinea fowl domesticated by rural farmers in three communities of Lafia local government area of Nasarawa State, were used for the study. The objectives of the study was to obtain the sources of shared variability among the body shape characters of adult guinea fowl and predict live weight using both original traits and orthogonal traits. Sex effect was not significant (p>0.05) on the traits. Correlations between traits were low to high. Body conformation “shape” were controlled by both common and unique factors, communalities ranges between .371 to .996 for wing length and keel length respectively. Common sources of variability in body dimension of the bird were accounted for by factors representing general size and chest circumference. Original body dimensions were better predictors of body weight than the orthogonal traits derived from factor analysis.