Chemical Composition of Earthworm (Eisenia foetida) Co-Dried with Vegetable Meals as an Animal Feed

Kirenia Pérez-Corría,Yordan Martínez-Aguilar,Franklin Rivera-Pineda,María Teresa Viana,Aroldo Botello-León,Arnaldo Botello-Rodríguez,Abril Karina Mauro-Félix,Maribel Cuello-Pérez

doi:10.19053/01228420.v16.n2.2019.9130

Kirenia Pérez-Corría, Yordan Martínez-Aguilar + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.19053/01228420.v16.n2.2019.9130

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Abstract

To evaluate the chemical composition of the earthworm (Eisenia foetida) co-dried (EW) with vegetable meals (VM) as animal feed ingredient, the blends were mixed with wheat bran (WB), rice powder (RP), corn meal (CM) and soy cake meal (SCM) in proportions of 85:15; 75:25 and 65:35. The dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), crude fat (CFA), crude fiber (CF), ashes and nitrogen-free extract (NFE) of the ingredients and final mixtures were determined. All the mixtures resulted with a high content of DM (≥90.00 %). No significant differences among the proportions were revealed (P>0.05). In addition, the higher inclusion of the earthworm in the proportions (85:15) increased (P<0.05) the CP (54.70 %), CFA (7.28 %), and ashes (10.20 %), mainly when mixed with SCM, CM, and RP, respectively. However, the use of vegetable meals proportionally increased the CF (7.31 %), and NFE (52.62 %), mainly with the proportion of 65:35 and with RP and CM, respectively (P<0.05). The results showed that the vegetable meals (WB, RP, CM, and SCM) are useful to co-dry the earthworm to be use for animal feed. It is concluded that the most appropriate proportion (VM:EW) will depend on the animal species, productive stage and market requirement.

Highlights

The world population is growing rapidly and it is expected to reach between 8.5 and 12 billion by the year 2100, of which 75 % of the population will live in the countries of Africa and Asia, which are mostly developing countries
The results showed that the vegetable meals (WB, rice powder (RP), corn meal (CM), and soy cake meal (SCM)) are useful to co-dry the earthworm to be use for animal feed
The mixtures with earthworm (Eisenia foetida) co-dried (EW)+wheat bran (WB) indicated more than 90.00 % dry matter (DM) (Table 2), without significant differences (P>0.05) among treatments

Summary

Introduction

The world population is growing rapidly and it is expected to reach between 8.5 and 12 billion by the year 2100, of which 75 % of the population will live in the countries of Africa and Asia, which are mostly developing countries. Human overpopulation is related to food insecurity, which induces the evolution of resource-exhaustive agriculture causing irreparable environmental damage (Singh, Srivastava, Singh,Upadhyay & Raghubanshi, 2019). The challenge for agricultural producers is to use efficiently the environmental resources to transform them into animal feed (Mohanta, Subramanian & Korikanthimath, 2016; Sánchez et al, 2019). In production systems of non-ruminant species, feed represents the highest cost of the zootechnical production, especially in developing countries, where the prices of raw materials are inaccessible for mid and small producers (Olmo et al, 2012). Conventional protein sources, such as fishmeal and soybean meal (Smárason et al, 2018). Several unconventional or alternative feeds have been used as protein sources to reduce production costs. Among the most remarkable are the protein fodders, yeasts, oilseeds, and the earthworm (Bahadori et al, 2017; Duodu et al, 2018; Falowo et al, 2018)

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