Authors: Ty Chhay, Khieu Borin and T R Preston
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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.