Abstract
BackgroundThe present work aimed at evaluating the effect of the dietary replacement of soybean oil (S) by two types of insect fats extracted from black soldier fly larvae (H, Hermetia illucens L.) and yellow mealworm larvae (T, Tenebrio molitor L.) on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, blood parameters, intestinal morphology and health of growing rabbits.MethodsAt weaning, 200 crossbred rabbits (36 days old) were allotted to five dietary treatments (40 rabbits/group): a control diet (C) containing 1.5% of soybean oil and four experimental diets where soybean oil was partially (50%) or totally (100%) substituted by H (H50 and H100) or T (T50 and T100) fats. Total tract digestibility was evaluated on 12 rabbits per treatment. The growth trial lasted 41 d and, at slaughtering (78 days old), blood samples were collected from 15 rabbits per treatment, morphometric analyses were performed on duodenum, jejunum and ileum mucosa, and samples of liver, spleen and kidney were submitted to histological evaluation.ResultsNo difference was observed between the control and the experimental groups fed insect fats in terms of performance, morbidity, mortality and blood variables. The addition of H and T fats did not influence apparent digestibility coefficients of dry matter, protein, ether extract, fibre fractions and gross energy. Gut morphometric indices and organ histopathology were not affected by dietary inclusion of H and T fats.ConclusionsH and T fats are suitable sources of lipid in rabbit diets to replace soybean oil without any detrimental effect on growth performance, apparent digestibility, gut mucosa traits and health.
Highlights
The present work aimed at evaluating the effect of the dietary replacement of soybean oil (S) by two types of insect fats extracted from black soldier fly larvae (H, Hermetia illucens L.) and yellow mealworm larvae (T, Tenebrio molitor L.) on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, blood parameters, intestinal morphology and health of growing rabbits
Diet composition and fatty acid profile Diets were comparable in terms of main crude protein and gross energy contents (18.6 MJ/kg Dry matter (DM)), despite some differences in analyses of fibre fractions: neutral detergent fibre (aNDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF) contents (Table 1)
C control diet, H50 and H100 diets with Hermetia illucens fat, T50 and T100 diets with Tenebrio molitor fat, SEM standard error of the means, Total proteins (TP) total proteins, Aspartate amino-transferase (AST) aspartate-aminotransferase, Alanine amino-transferase (ALT) alanine-aminotransferase, Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) alkaline phosphatase, GGT Gamma-glutamyl transferase, Lactic acid dehydrogenase (LDH) lactic acid dehydrogenase
Summary
The present work aimed at evaluating the effect of the dietary replacement of soybean oil (S) by two types of insect fats extracted from black soldier fly larvae (H, Hermetia illucens L.) and yellow mealworm larvae (T, Tenebrio molitor L.) on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, blood parameters, intestinal morphology and health of growing rabbits. The 60%–70% increase of animal products consumption expected by 2050 has pushed research to investigate new raw materials for animal feeds [4]. In this context, insects are very interesting as innovative feed for fish and insects have different lipid content (ether extract from 5% to 40% of dry matter, DM) and FA profile related to the species and the rearing substrate [6, 11, 12]. EC 999/2001), there are no prohibitions on the use of insect fats as a raw material for animal compound feeds [15,16,17]
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