title: Nutritive value of three tropical forage legumes and their influence on growth performance, carcass traits and organ weights of pigs.
abstract: The effects of tropical forage legumes on feed intake, growth performance and carcass traits were investigated in 16 groups of two Large White × Duroc pigs. The diets consisted of a commercial corn-soybean meal diet as the basal diet and three forage-supplemented diets. Four groups of control pigs received daily 4 % of body weight of the basal diet, and 12 groups of experimental pigs were fed the basal diet at 3.2 % of body weight completed with fresh leaves of one of the three forage legumes (Psophocarpus scandens, Stylosanthes guianensis and Vigna unguiculata) ad libitum. The study lasted 90 days. The in vitro digestion and fermentation of the forage legumes were also determined. The in vitro digestible energy content of the legumes was between 0.72 and 0.77 that of the basal diet (14.4 MJ/kg dry matter (DM)). V . unguiculata was the most digestible forage legume expected for crude protein digestibility. Feeding forage legumes lowered the dry matter intake by 4.5 to 9.6 % (P < 0.05), final body weight (P = 0.013), slaughter weight, average daily gain and hot carcass weight (P < 0.05) without affecting the feed conversion ratio (FCR), dressing percentage and back fat thickness. In conclusion, using forage to feed pig could be interesting in pig smallholder production with limited access to concentrate, as FCR was not significantly affected.
authors.affiliation: Université de Kinshasa, Mont-Amba, Lemba, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.|University of Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Precision Livestock and Nutrition Unit, Passage des Déportés, 2, 5030, Gembloux, Belgium.
authors.forename: Bienvenu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kambashi
authors.affiliation: Université de Kinshasa, Mont-Amba, Lemba, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
authors.forename: Gaetan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kalala
authors.affiliation: University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dochain
authors.affiliation: Université de Kinshasa, Mont-Amba, Lemba, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mafwila
authors.affiliation: University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Rollin
authors.affiliation: University of Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Precision Livestock and Nutrition Unit, Passage des Déportés, 2, 5030, Gembloux, Belgium.
authors.forename: Christelle
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boudry
authors.affiliation: University of Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Precision Livestock and Nutrition Unit, Passage des Déportés, 2, 5030, Gembloux, Belgium.
authors.forename: Pascale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Picron
authors.affiliation: University of Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Precision Livestock and Nutrition Unit, Passage des Déportés, 2, 5030, Gembloux, Belgium. jerome.bindelle@ulg.ac.be.
authors.forename: Jérôme
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bindelle
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed / Q000032:analysis*; D000822:Animal Husbandry; D000818:Animals; D001823:Body Composition; D015023:Democratic Republic of the Congo; D004032:Diet / Q000662:veterinary; D007887:Fabaceae; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D008297:Male; D008460:Meat / Q000592:standards; D009753:Nutritive Value; D009929:Organ Size; D018515:Plant Leaves; D013552:Swine / Q000502:physiology*; D014329:Tropical Climate; D015430:Weight Gain
keywords: Forage legumes; Growth; Nutritive value; Pigs