Chhay Ty et al., 2006. Livest. Res. Rural Dev., 18 (4)

A total of 24 crossbred (Local * Landrace or Local * Duroc) castrated boars weighing 16.0-18.4 kg were used in a 2*3 factorial arrangement to study the effect of different levels of substitution of wilted cassava leaves by water spinach and a basal diet of broken rice or a mixture (50:50) of rice bran and cassava root meal. The feeding trial lasted for 120 days from 8 August to 6 December 2005. Higher intakes of water spinach and cassava leaves and total dry matter (DM) were observed when the basal diet was broken rice rather than rice bran mixed with cassava root meal. Increasing the replacement of cassava leaves by water spinach from 10 to 30% resulted in increased intake of the energy component in the total quantity of foliage and of total DM. Growth rates tended to be higher in pigs on the broken rice diet than those on the rice bran and cassava root meal diet. The 30% level of water spinach was superior to the 10% level. The overall trend of liveweight gain as a function of level of water spinach was curvilinear and positive, indicating a synergistic effect on performance from mixing increasing amounts of water spinach with fresh cassava leaves.