The Nutritional Value and Microbial Content of Dried Face Fly Pupae (Musca autumnalis (De Geer)) When Fed to Chicks

Abstract

The face fly (Musca autumnalis (De Geer)) has several advantages over the house fly (Musca domestica L.) as a means of salvaging the nutrients in manure for use by domestic animals. Dried face fly pupae contained 51.7% crude protein, 11.3% crude fat, 28.9% ash, 8.1% nitrogen free extract, and 4.3 kcal/g energy. The amino acid content was typical of animal proteins with a large amount of methionine. Dried pupae were excellent sources of calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and several trace elements. The microbiological burden of the dried pupae prepared as described was well within the tolerances for human food. Feeding dried pupae as a direct substitution for soybean oil meal in chick rations for the first 4 weeks of growth produced no observable effects other than a slight decrease in feed efficiency due to the lower caloric density of the diets containing dried pupae as compared with those containing soybean oil meal.It was concluded that dried face fly pupae could be used to salvage nutrients in manure and could be used as a feed extender and protein source.