Partial and total replacement of soybean meal with maggot larvae meal in broiler chicken diets: Impact on growth performance, nutrients digestibility, haemotological parameters and intestinal histomorphology

Abstract

Current study was carried out to investigate the effect of replacing soybean meal with maggot meal in broilers ration (Ross-308, n = 200) for 1–28 days. Five isocaloric and isonitrogenic broiler rations were prepared comprising of control diet-1 (Mag-0) having 100 % soybean meal and 0 % maggot meal, Diet-2 (Mag-70) having 30 % soy bean meal and 70 % maggot meal, Diet-3 (Mag-80) having 20 % soybean meal and 80 % maggot meal, Diet-4 (Mag-90) 10 % soybean meal and 90 % maggot meal and Diet-5 (Mag-100) containing 0 % soybean meal and 100 % maggot meal. The results showed that weekly as well as overall body weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR) was found similar (P>0.05) for all the chicks fed with different replacement diets. Protein efficiency ratio, dressing percentage, apparent metabolizable energy and antibody titer observed showed no significant (P>0.05) differences at the end of the experiment among the different substituted and control groups. Similarly, no significant (p>0.05) effect was observed on the digestibility of amino acids for different replacement diets of soybean meal with maggot meal. Statistically similar effects were also observed for organoleptic study, intestinal morphometry, hematological and serum parameters. It was concluded from the current study that up to 100 % soybean meal can be substituted with maggot meal in poultry ration without any adverse effects on the health and performance parameters of the broiler chicks.