PARTIAL SUBSTITUTION OF COMMERCIAL SWINE FEEDS WITH MALUNGGAY (Moringa oleifera) LEAF MEAL UNDER BACKYARD CONDITIONS

Abstract

Two feeding trials were conducted to evaluate the potential of malunggay (Moringa oleifera) leaf meal (MLM) as partial substitute for commercial hog pre-starter and starter diets of weaned pigs. Sixteen and 15 crossbreed weaned pigs were distributed randomly to four and three treatments in feeding trials A and B, respectively, following a completely randomized design. Commercial feeds served as the control diet in both feeding trials; substituted with 2, 3 and 4% MLM for treatments 2, 3 and 4, respectively in feeding trial A. In B, substitution with MLM was increased to 5 and 10% for treatments 2 and 3, respectively. Results showed no significant differences among treatments in all performance parameters measured. The average body weight, average daily gain, average daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio of pigs fed diets with up to 10% MLM were statistically comparable to those fed 100% commercial feeds. Therefore, the commercial hog pre-starter or starter feeds could be partially substituted with MLM up to 10% without detrimental effect on the performance of weaned pigs. When malunggay is readily available in the backyard where the animal raiser could prepare the MLM, the feed cost to produce a kilogram body weight gain could be reduced by as much as PhP 4.28 to PhP 6.84/kg BWG with 10 and 4% MLM, respectively.