Studies in which leaf meals have been included in the diet of pigs have shown that inclusion
levels of up to 10 % lead to weight gains and feed conversion efficiencies that are superior to
conventional control diets (D’Mello 1995). However, most studies have shown that inclusion of
leaf meals may increase growth rate but depress feed conversion efficiency (Ravindran 1993;
Halimani et al 2005). Most of the studies have assessed the response of the pigs over relatively
short periods (Halimani et al 2005; Leterme et al 2005). The objectives of the study were to
investigate the growth performance, feed intake, digestibility, production of salivary proline rich
proteins and indices of mitosis in the small intestine, liver and the kidneys in pigs fed on diets
containing 10 % Acacia karroo, Acacia nilotica and Colophospermum mopane over a 56-day
fattening period taking pigs to market weight. The hypothesis to be tested was that inclusion of
10 percent leaf meal in pig diets had no effect on growth performance. It is concluded that feeding leaf meals at low (10%) inclusion levels in the diet of pigs leads to a depression in digestibility of nutrients, an increase in endogenous protein secretion and an increase in the activity of liver enzymes. Also, inclusion of leaf meals in the fattening diets of pigs did not reduce growth rate and is, therefore, a potentially feasible technology that farmers can include in their pig production strategies.