Research notes: Sodium bicarbonate supplementation in diets for guinea fowl raised at high environmental temperatures

An experiment was designed to verify the effect of dietary NaHCO3 supplementation on performance of guinea fowl raised under high environmental temperatures (23.8 to 33.9 C) and average relative humidity of 78.7%. One hundred and forty guinea fowl in their final period of growth (56 to 84 d of age) were allotted to individual wire cages. Five isocaloric (3,000 kcal ME/kg) 16% CP diets based on corn and soybean meal and containing 0, 0.6, 1.2, 1.8, and 2.4% sodium bicarbonate were fed to the birds. The experiment followed a randomized block design with 28 birds per treatment (14 of each sex) with each bird being considered as one repetition. Results showed that weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion, mortality, blood pH, carcass yield, and carcass composition were not affected (P > 0.05) by dietary sodium bicarbonate supplementation. Weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion, carcass moisture, and fat content, however, were significantly (P < 0.05) affected by sex. Females showed 17.49% better weight gain, 7.16% greater feed intake, and 9.6% better feed conversion than males. These differences were exacerbated at supplementation levels of 1.2 and 1.8% sodium bicarbonate in the diet. Male birds showed carcass moisture values significantly (P < 0.05) greater than those of female birds; the opposite occurred with carcass fat levels. The use of sodium bicarbonate in levels up to 2.4% of the diet did not affect the performance of guinea fowl raised under the environmental conditions registered in this study.