Agricultural Reviews

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Agricultural Reviews, volume 33 issue 2 (june 2012) : 93 - 103

IMpORTANCE OF Azolla AS A sustainable feed for livestock AND POULTRY - a review

Mahadevappa D. Gouri, Jagadeesh S. Sanganal, C.R. Gopinath, C.M. Kalibavi1
1Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Veterinary College, Hebbal, Bangalore -560 024, India

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Cite article:- Gouri D. Mahadevappa, Sanganal S. Jagadeesh, Gopinath C.R., Kalibavi1 C.M. (2025). IMpORTANCE OF Azolla AS A sustainable feed for livestock AND POULTRY - a review . Agricultural Reviews. 33(2): 93 - 103. doi: .

ABSTRACT

India has the largest livestock population in the world. To meet the present and future demands of the growing human population certain new strategies are to be adapted to meet the input requirements for production of livestock and their by products. Though India stands first in the world in terms of milk production and bovine population, average production still needs to be improved; this may be due to low plane of nutrition due to insufficient availability of good quality fodder/feed. This has led to find alternate sources of good quality unconventional feed/fodder for efficient livestock production. The search for alternatives to concentrates/fodder/feed to different species of animals, a wonderful plant called azolla, which holds the promise of providing a sustainable feed for livestock. Since azolla contains most of the nutrients which are required for all classes of livestock including poultry and fish. The azolla can be fed to these animals without any adverse effects. Various studies revealed that feeding of azolla, in dairy cows increases milk production by 15 to 20 per cent. Feeding of azolla in poultry birds improves the weight of broiler chicken and increases the egg production in layers. Hence the azolla can be used as unconventional high potential feed resource for non-ruminants. Above all, for the best performance diets of pullet chicks can be formulated with inclusion of azolla up to 10 per cent. The azolla and salvinia are good sources of minerals and essential amino acids; their usage is limited in pig production due to their low digestible energy. Information obtained from different studies revealed that azolla has high nutrient and it is well accepted by sheep and goats. Azolla can be used as an ideal source of feed for cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, rabbits and fish as an alternate source to a concentrate / feed / fodder to improve the production status of the animals.

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