Khanum et al., 2005. Livest. Res. Rural Dev., 17 (5): 50

The experiment was conducted at Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute (BLRI) to determine the intake and digestibility of fresh duckweed in growing ducks and to evaluate the growth performance and carcass characteristics of ducks fed on fresh duckweeds, either in confinement or through grazing. The intake and digestibility trials were performed in two phases at 9-10 and 18-19 weeks of age. A control diet was a commercial feed compound and the treatment diets were: 50% control diet+ ad libitum fresh and harvested duckweed (DWH), 50% control diet+ducks were allowed to graze on duckweed in a lagoon (DWG), and the last diet was foraging fresh duckweed by the ducks in the lagoon only (DWO). All the birds of DWO group died during the first 3 weeks of the trial, which indicated that duck could not be rear by feeding duckweed only. The intake of fresh biomass, nitrogen and crude fibre were significantly higher in duckweed than in the control diet in both phases, but the intakes of dry matter and organic matter were significantly lower. In both phases, digestibilities of dry matter, organic matter and crude fibre in duckweed diets were significantly lower than in the control diet. However, the apparent and true protein digestibilities of duckweed were significantly higher than in the control diet in the first phase but lower in the second phase. The final live weight and average daily body weight gain were not different between duckweed diets but significantly lower than in the control diet.