Village guinea fowl (Numidia meleagris) production systems in Nasarawa State, north central Nigeria: flock characteristics, husbandry and productivity

Within the livestock sector, village poultry are often the most commonly owned type of livestock and they are more frequently owned than larger livestock species by resource-poor households. The present study was conducted to investigate the flock characteristics, husbandry and productivity of village guinea fowl (Numidia Meleagris) in Nasarawa State, Nigeria. Data were gathered using a semi-structured questionnaire survey of 117 households cutting across the three agricultural zones of the state. The mean number of guinea fowl owned per household between the study zones was higher in Nasarawa West and Nasarawa Central compared to the Southern Agricultural zone (9.94, 7.36 and 6.29, respectively). The overall cock:hen ratio of the village guinea fowl flocks was 1:2.5, depicting excess breeding males. Majority of the households purchased their foundation stock from the market. While approximately 78% of the respondents provided partial enclosure for their birds, 79% of the households claimed to offer partial feed supplements done in both wet and dry seasons. Women and children were the predominant providers of care for guinea fowls. The mean number of eggs per hen per year was 78.7, of which 56.1 eggs were hatched. Newcastle disease (ND) was the most prevalent disease while ethno veterinary services were used as substitute for conventional veterinary support by 28.2% of the households. About 72% of the village birds were sold at the adult stage and the priority purpose of keeping guinea fowls was mainly for cash (44.4%) and home consumption (26.5%). Losses incurred were due to factors such as poor health care, poor housing, poor feeding and incidence of predation and theft. The effective population size (Ne) and inbreeding rate (ΔF) of 493 and 0.00101 (0.1%) obtained across the three agricultural zones indicated that the guinea fowl populations are not at the risk of extinction. Therefore, better management strategies geared towards increasing the profitability of the village guinea fowl enterprise should be employed.