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Malavanh et al., 2006. Livest. Res. Rural Dev., 18 (6): 86

Document reference 
Malavanh, C. ; Preston, T. R., 2006. Intake and digestibility by pigs fed different levels of sweet potato leaves and water spinach as supplements to a mixture of rice bran and cassava root meal. Livest. Res. Rural Dev., 18 (6): 86
Abstract 
The aim of this experiment, conducted at the Livestock Research Centre of the National Agriculture and Forestry Institute (NAFRI), Lao PDR, is to study intake and digestibility in growing pigs fed different levels of sweet potato leaves and water spinach as supplements to a mixture of rice bran and cassava root meal. Three local male pigs of average live weight 13.3 kg were housed in individual cages. The design was a 3*3 Latin square with periods of 10 days, the treatments being ratios of sweet potato vines and waters spinach of 100:0, 75:25 and 50:50 (DM basis). The cassava root meal and rice bran (50:50 mixture) was restricted to 2% (DM basis) of liveweight, the sweet potato leaves mixed with water spinach were fed ad libitum (120% of observed intake). Fresh sweet potato leaves and water spinach were harvested everyday in the Livestock Research Centre and were chopped into small pieces prior to feeding. Increasing the level of water spinach did not effect total dry matter intake of the diet, nor the coefficients of apparent digestibility of DM, organic matter, nitrogen and crude fibre, nor the retention of nitrogen. It is concluded that water spinach and sweet potato leaves appear to have the same nutritive value when used to supplement a basal diet of cassava root meal and rice bran for growing pigs.
Citation key 
Malavanh et al., 2006