The apparent metabolisable energy and ileal amino digestibility of black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae meal for broiler chickens

Abstract

ABSTRACT 1. Two experiments were conducted to determine the apparent metabolisable energy (AME) and standardised amino acid digestibility coefficients (SIDC) of black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) for broiler chickens. 2. The BSFL contained, on a g/kg dry matter basis: crude protein, 486; crude fat, 320; ash, 58.5; neutral detergent fibre, 181; calcium, 6.8 and phosphorus, 9.1. 3. In Experiment 1, an AME assay was performed wherein broilers were fed two experimental diets (a maize-soy basal diet and a test diet containing 250 g/kg BSFL) for 4 d from d 18 posthatch. The AME of BSFL was calculated based on the difference between the AME values of basal and test diets. The AME and nitrogen-corrected AME were determined to be 19.1and 18.0 MJ/kg of dry matter, respectively. 4. In Experiment 2, the ileal amino acid (AA) digestibility of BSFL was determined using 22-d-old broilers by the direct method and the digesta was collected on d 25. The ratios between the AA and titanium in the diet and digesta were used to calculate the apparent digestibility and then standardised using previously published endogenous losses to estimate the SIDC of AA. The SIDC of Lys, Met, Thr, Val and average SIDC of AA in our BSFL sample were 0.85, 0.90, 0.91, 0.87 and 0.84, respectively. 5. The findings showed that the BSFL meal is a good source of available energy and digestible AA, and could be a potential substitute for soybean meal in broiler diets.