Huque et al., 1996. Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci., 9 (2): 133-137

Duckweed, an aquatic plant of the family Lemnaceae, is a rich source of protein and also contains cell wall materials. Spirodela, Lemna and Wolffia, the most available species of duckweeds were evaluated in terms of their chemical composition, the rate and extent of digestion of their dry matter(DM) and crude protein(CP) in the rumen and also their acceptability to the cattle. The three species contained CP of 284, 399 and 299 g kg-1 DM, respectively; NDF of 471, 574 and 476 g kg-1 DM, respectively; ADF of 215, 203 and 227 g kg-1 DM, respectively. The rumen digestibilities of DM of the three species for 24 h were 410, 570 and 731 g kg-1 DM, respectively and of CP were 528, 740 and 778 g kg-1 DM, respectively. The rates of digestion of DM of the three duckweeds were 2.22, 3.63 and 5.73 % h-1, respectively and 926 g kg-1 DM, respectively and of CP were 801, 874 and 943 g kg-1 DM, respectively. Mixed duckweeds as a component of a concentrate mixture were eaten by the cattle at the rate of 10% of their live weights. It may be concluded that the dry matter and crude protein of the available duckweeds wee highly degradable in the rumen and may be fed to cattle mixing with concentrates. For the effective utilization of duck weeds as cattle feed their effect on the rumen digestion kinetics of a roughage diet need to be studied carefully.