Effect on Growth Performance and Nutritive Value of Cultivated <i>Azolla filiculoides </i>as an Alternative Feedstuff for Ruminant

<i>Azolla filiculoides</i> is a tiny, free-floating aquatic fern and has a potential alternative protein and fibre source for ruminants, was investigated for its cultivation optimisation and feedstuff suitability. Study 1 was conducted to investigate the influence of different fertiliser types (control, broiler manure, sheep manure, cow manure) and concentrations (0.25 g/L-1.25 g/L) on the growth performance (fresh weight, doubling time, relative growth rate) and nutrient composition (dry matter, ash, crude protein, crude fibre, crude fat) of <i>A. filiculoides</i>. The optimised type of fertiliser and concentration in Study 1 were further adopted in Study 2 to evaluate the effect of different fertiliser processing methods on the growth performance, nutritive value and <i>in vitro</i> rumen digestibility of <i>A. filiculoides</i> upon cultivation. The findings in Study 1 showed that cultivation of <i>A. filiculoides</i> using sheep manure at the concentration of 1.00 g/L is the best resulted in the shortest doubling time (3 to 5 days) and produced fresh weight (FW), relative growth rate (RGR), crude protein (CP) and crude fibre (CF) at 132.2 g/m², 0.32 g/g/day, 21.2% DM^-1 and 14.4% DM^-1, respectively. Furthermore, unprocessed sheep manure (T3) exhibited superior (<i>p</i> < 0.05) fresh weight, relative growth rate, nutrient composition and fibre components compared to the burned manure treatment (T2). <i>In vitro</i> digestibility analysis discovered that T3 achieved a 24-hour accumulated gas production of 86.9 mL DM^-1, with <i>in vitro</i> dry matter digestibility (IVDMD), <i>in vitro</i> organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) and metabolisable energy (ME) of 82.9%, 43.7% and 5.8 MJ/kg DM, respectively. These findings suggest that <i>Azolla filiculoides</i> cultivation can be economically optimised using 1.00 g/L unprocessed sheep manure (fresh manure), potentially serving as a self-produced, nutritious feedstuff for ruminants.