Fertility, hatghability and malformations in guinea fowl embryos as affected by dietary manganese

Abstract

1. The effects of feeding diets containing 54 mg, 60 mg, 65 mg or 70 mg manganese/kg to Guinea fowls on fertility, hatchability and the occurrence of malformed embryos were studied.

2. Dietary manganese affected fertility slightly, but significantly affected hatchability and the occurrence of malformed embryos.

3. Hatchability was most significantly depressed at the lowest dietary concentration of manganese, which also caused a highly significant increase in the proportion of malformed embryos.

4. Although increasing manganese to more than 54 mg/kg improved hatchability and reduced embryonic malformations, the increase did not completely eliminate the latter condition.

Notes

Present address: Department of Animal Husbandry and Biochemistry, National Animal Production Research Institute, Ahmadu Bello University, PMB 1096, Shika‐Zaria, Nigeria.