Effect of fresh mulberry leaves and sweet potato vines on growth performance of pigs fed a basal diet of broken rice

Chiv Phiny, T R Preston* and Khieu Borin

Center for Livestock and Agriculture Development (CelAgrid),
P.O box 2423, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
chphiny@celagrid.org
* TOSOLY, A48 Socorro, Colombia

Abstract

Twelve crossbred pigs (range of 15 to 20 kg weight) were fed a basal diet of broken rice (restricted to 2% of LW as DM) supplemented with fresh mulberry leaves, fresh sweet potato vines or a mixture of the two foliages.

It appeared that a period of some 30 days was required for adaptation to the diets. During which time there were no differences among treatments. From 30 to 90 days and for the overall period of 0-90 days, intake of DM and crude protein, and live weight gain was highest for pigs fed the diet supplemented only with sweet potato vines with lowest values for pigs fed only mulberry leaves as the supplement. There was a tendency for feed conversion to follow a similar pattern.  DM intake and growth rate were positively correlated (R² = 0.83).

It is concluded that the benefits of the sweet potato vines are their superior palatability compared with mulberry leaves, which resulted in higher intakes of DM and crude protein and better pig performance.

Key words: Adaptation, DM intake, feed conversion, palatability