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Water spinach and fresh water hyacinth in growing pigs
Effect of mixtures of water spinach and fresh water hyacinth leaves on growth performance of pigs fed a basal diet of rice bran and cassava root meal
Abstract
Twenty four crossbred castrated male pigs with initial body weight from 13.7 to 15.1 kg were allocated to 6 diets containing water spinach at levels of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25% in DM, replacing fresh leaves of water hyacinth at levels of 37, 32, 27, 22, 27 and 12% in DM. The other components of the diet (DM basis) were fish meal (4-5%), soybean meal (4-5%), rice bran (26-27%) and cassava root meal (26-27%). The experiment period was 120 days.
The replacement of 37% fresh leaves of water hyacinth by 12% water hyacinth leaves and 25% fresh water spinach (from 37 to12% of DM) with fresh water spinach (from 0 to 25% in DM) led to: (i) a 50% increase in DM intake; (ii) tripling of the rate of weight gain (from 78 to 215 g/day); and (iii) improved DM feed conversion (from 9.2 to 4.4).
It is concluded that there are no apparent benefits from including water hyacinth leaves in diets of growing pigs.
Key words: Growth rate, pigs, water hyacinth, water spinach
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Phiny C, Ogle B, Preston T R and Borin K 2008: Growth performance of pigs fed water spinach or water spinach mixed with mulberry leaves, as protein sources in basal diets of cassava root meal plus rice bran or sugar palm syrup plus broken rice. Livestock Research for Rural Development. Volume 20, supplement. Retrieved printDate()May 27, 2008, from http://www.cipav.org.co/lrrd/lrrd20/supplement/phin2.htm