Different studies have shown that insect meals can partially or completely replace the fish and soya bean meals that are commonly used in aquaculture. However, information is lacking on the amino acid and fatty acid contents and digestibility of different insect meals. Moreover, we evaluated different proportions of insect diets and determined how these affected the nutritional values of insect meals. Our purpose was to clarify these aspects and consider the availability of protein, amino acids, lipids and fatty acids in insect meals in fish nutrition. Generally, insect meals have higher indispensable amino acid contents than other meal types, with contents closely related to those in fish meal. Insect meal can be an important source of essential amino acids such as methionine, with contents ranging between 0.47 and 4.03 g 100 g À1 sample. These values are higher than those reported for other animal and plant meals. In addition, insects are also good sources of lipids and fatty acids, and the amounts and types of fatty acids vary according to the species, stage of development and type of feed. Moreover, the additional nutritional value of insect meal includes compounds such as chitin, which is primarily considered a fibre but also contains nitrogen and amino acids. Insect peptides with activity against pathogenic microflora provide secondary biological effects, which may significantly improve animal health.

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the consumption of poultry meat and eggs is expected to increase considerably in the nearest future, which creates the demand for new poultry feed ingredients in order to support sustainable intensive production. Moreover, the constant improvement of the genetic potential of poultry has resulted in an increased nutrient density in poultry feeds, which limits the possibility to include low quality feed ingredients. therefore, the feed industry needs new sources of highly digestible protein with a desirable amino acid composition to substitute other valuable but limited protein sources of animal origin, such as fishmeal. With estimated 1.5 to 3 million species, the class of insects harbours the largest species variety in the world including species providing a high protein and sulphur amino acids content, which can be successfully exploited as feed for poultry. the aim of this paper is to review the present state of knowledge concerning the use of insect protein in poultry nutrition and the possibilities of mass production of insects for the feed industry. there is no doubt that insects have an enormous potential as a source of nutrients (protein) and active substances (polyunsaturated fatty acids, antimicrobial peptides) for poultry. It can be concluded, based on many experimental results, that meals from insects being members of the orders Diptera (black soldier fly, housefly), Coleoptera (mealworms) and Orthoptera (grasshoppers, locust, crickets and katylids), may be successfully used as feed material in poultry diets. However, legislation barriers in the european union, as well as relatively high costs and limited quantity of produced insects are restrictions in the large-scale use of insect meals in poultry nutrition.

Background Insects in the fish diet are a natural source of protein, fat, and other nutrients. These meals are considered an ecological replacement for fishmeal to improve growth parameters. The application of insect meals to fish diets has been studied, especially in continental fish. Data regarding the effects of insect meals on the gut health of Siberian sturgeon are not available. This study investigated the effects of full-fat Hermetia illucens (HI) and Tenebrio molitor (TM) meals on the gut health of juvenile Siberian sturgeon. Growth performance, gastrointestinal tract (GIT) histomorphology and the microbiome composition of juvenile Siberian sturgeon were analyzed. Results The inclusion of insect meals did not affect the growth performance or the survival rate. In the gastrointestinal tract histomorphology, a reduction in the mucosa thickness with the HI treatment was observed. In contrast, fish fed the TM diet had an increase in the thickness of the muscular layer. There were no observed significant differences in villus height among treatments. The analysis of the selected microbiota populations in the Siberian sturgeon gastrointestinal tract showed that insect addition affected the composition of the microbiome. The greatest effect on bacterial populations (Clostridium leptum subgroup, Enterobacteriaceae, Clostridium coccoides – Eubacterium rectale cluster, Aeromonas spp., Bacillus spp., Carnobacterium spp., Enterococcus spp. and Lactobacillus group) was observed with the HI diet (P < 0.05). The TM-based diet increased counts in the following bacterial groups: Clostridium coccoides – Eubacterium rectale cluster, Bacillus spp., Carnobacterium spp., and Enterococcus spp. In contrast, the TM diet decreased the total number of bacteria. The TM diet did not significantly affect the Clostridium leptum subgroup, Enterobacteriaceae, Aeromonas spp. or the Lactobacillus group. Conclusions Fish meal replacement by the inclusion of 15% of full-fat Hermetia illucens and Tenebrio molitor (15%) meals did not affect the growth performance, survival rate or villus height of juvenile Siberian sturgeon. The present study suggests that an H. illucens-based diet positively affects the gut microbiota composition and intestinal morphology of juvenile Siberian sturgeon without negative changes in the villus height.

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a 71-day-long experiment was conducted to evaluate the inclusion of 20% hermetia illucens (hi) meal; Tenebrio molitor (Tm) meal; Gryllodes sigillatus (gs) meal; and Blatta lateralis (bl) meal in comparison to a control diet without any insect-based materials that used fish meal as the main source of protein. a total of 1950 rainbow trout juveniles (53.39 ± 3.74 g) were used. The formulated diets were isonitrogenous (45%) and isoenergetic (10 mJ kg -1 ). The inclusion of a full-fat insect meal did not affect the survival rate during the experimental period. The growth performance was significantly improved in the BL and TM treatments, while in the HI treatment was not affected. however, the gs treatment had a negative effect on the growth performance. The villus height decreased in the Tm and gs treatment groups and increased in the bl diet group. The total number of bacteria increased in all insect meal diet groups. The results of the experiment show that B. lateralis, T. molitor and h. illucens full-fat meals can be used as a partial fish meal replacement without negative effects on survival or growth performance parameters. moreover, full-fat insect meals may be considered as a protein source and a functional feed component that may positively affect the histomorphological structure of the fish gastrointestinal tract and stimulate the expansion of beneficial bacterial populations in the gut.

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of insect full-fat meals ( Tenebrio molitor and Zophobas morio larvae), added “ on top ” of a complete diet or calculated into diets, on the growth performance, selected blood, and immune system traits of broiler chickens. 1,000 one-day-old female Ross 308 broiler chicks were used in 2 independent experiments. In the first trial, the birds were randomly assigned to 6 treatments, 10 replicate pens per treatment, and 10 birds per pen, i.e., negative control; positive control with salinomycin addition (60 mg/kg diet), and addition of 0.2% and 0.3% of T. molitor and Z. morio full-fat meals “ on top ”. In the second experiment, 4 treatments, 10 replicate pens per treatment, and 10 birds per pen were set, i.e., negative control, positive control with salinomycin addition (60 mg/kg diet), and 0.3% of T. molitor and Z. morio full-fat meals calculated in the diets. In both trials the supplementation of insects increased the BWG (Exp. 1: P = 0.024; Exp. 2: P = 0.046) and FI (Exp. 1: P = 0.022; Exp. 2: P = 0.026), and no negative effect on the FCR was recorded in experiment one ( P = 0.514), however in second trial insects addition increased FCR values ( P = 0.011). In addition, in the first trial, groups fed insects and PC comparing to NC decreased the IgY ( P = 0.045) and IgM, ( P < 0.001) levels. In the second experiment, IgM levels were also decreased ( P < 0.001) in groups fed insects comparing to NC. Moreover, in first trial the IgM levels were negatively correlated to the BWG (r = –0.4845) and FI (r = –0.4986), with statistically significant values ( P < 0.001). In conclusion, the current results confirmed that small amount addition (0.2% and 0.3%) of T. molitor and Z. morio full-fat meals to the diet of broiler chickens can improve growth performance and change selected the immune system traits.

There is an increasing interest in the use of insects in animal feed since they contain high proteins levels, lipids, vitamins and minerals. In particular, insect-derived proteins are seen as one of the potential solution to face the increasing protein shortage and are able to fully substitute soybean meal or fishmeal in aquaculture or livestock feeds. However, beside their interesting nutritional composition, insects are also rich in bioactive compounds such as chitin, antimicrobial peptides or specific fatty acids with immunostimulating, antimicrobial and/or anti-inflammatory properties able to sustain animal health, increase their resistance to diseases. Further studies will also have to investigate whether insects share similarities with bacterial or parasitical pathogens and may act as immunostimulants. These recent findings may launch insects beyond the protein concept into healthy animal feeds. This review presents the effects of insects and their bioactive compounds on fish and crustaceans, poultry, pigs and rabbits immune system, gut health, microbiota and resistance to diseases.