Growth and digestibility of gross nutrients by azolla incorporation in Marwari stallion

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out with the objectives of studying the effect of Azolla supplementation on feed utilization and growth rate parameters of Marwari stallions. The 3 Marwari stallions were subjected to a switchover technique of feeding in which they were fed with basal feed for 45 days (trial I), then for next 45 days feeding trial 10% of total concentrate feed protein was replaced by Azolla supplementation (trial II). The proximate analysis of Azolla pinnata in terms of DM, CP, EE, CF, TA and NFE were 6.7, 25.40, 13.17, 3.60, 15.42 and 42.41, respectively on % DM basis. A digestibility trial was conducted to determine the digestibility of different nutrients towards the end of the each feeding trial. There was no significant difference between two groups in terms of body weight of animal groups under trial, total dry matter intake, FI/100kg B.wt/d, digestibility of DM, CP, CF, EE, TA and NFE on DM (%) basis. During both feeding trial, average body weight was recorded fortnightly and result revealed that there was no significant difference between two groups in terms of growth rate.