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Black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae meal improves quail growth performance

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Abstract

The aim of the present study was to determine the nutritional value of black soldier fly (BSF) larvae meal for quail (experiment I) and the dose–response effects of BSF levels on growth performance, relative organ weight, and body composition of growing quails (experiment II). In experiment I, 100 35-day-old quail were distributed in a completely randomized design, with two treatments (reference and test diet) and 10 replicates. The experimental period consisted of 5 days of adaptation, followed by 5 days of total excreta collection. The experimental feed consisted of a reference diet and a test diet formulated with 850 g/kg reference diet and 150 g/kg BSF. In experiment II, 1000 1-day-old quail were distributed in a completely randomized design, with five dietary levels of BSF (0, 25, 50, 75, and 100 g/kg). At 42 days of age, birds were slaughtered, and the relative organ weight and body composition were determined. Apparent metabolizable energy values corrected for nitrogen retention of BSF meal were 13.8 MJ/kg. Across the starter (1–14 days) and overall period (1–42 days), increasing BSF levels had a quadratic effect on body weight and body weight gain. Feed conversion ratio was quadratically affected during the starter phase and linearly reduced over the overall period. Additionally, the BSF levels linearly decreased the small intestine’s relative weight at 42 days and had a quadratic effect on the rate of protein deposition. We concluded that the inclusion of 100 g/kg BSF meal improves feed conversion ratio for growing quail.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Cyns (Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil) for the donation of the BSF meal. The authors would like to thank the Academic Writing Center (Centro de Escrita Acadêmica, CEA) of the State University of Maringá (UEM) for assistance with English language translation and developmental editing.

Funding

This work was supported by Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel—Brazil (CAPES)—Grant number 001. The authors would like to thank the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for the financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal Science, State University of Maringá, Colombo Avenue, 5790, Jardim Universitário, Maringá, Paraná, 87020-900, Brazil

    Brena Cristine Rosário Silva, Maria Tereza Frageri Paulino, Letícia Aline Lima da Silva & Simara Márcia Marcato

  2. Agroceres Multimix, Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil

    José Matheus de Moura Andrade

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  1. Brena Cristine Rosário Silva
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  2. Maria Tereza Frageri Paulino
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  3. Letícia Aline Lima da Silva
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  4. José Matheus de Moura Andrade
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  5. Simara Márcia Marcato
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Contributions

BRC Silva: conceptualization, investigation, formal analysis, and writing—original draft. MTF Paulino: investigation. LAL Silva: investigation and methodology. JMM Andrade: resources and writing—review and editing. SM Marcato: conceptualization, supervision, and writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Brena Cristine Rosário Silva.

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The experimental protocol was approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of State University of Maringá (UEM) under protocol number 6329180919.

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Silva, B.C.R., Paulino, M.T.F., da Silva, L.A.L. et al. Black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae meal improves quail growth performance. Trop Anim Health Prod 56, 65 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-024-03899-y

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