BSF pre-pupae meal (up to 15%) can be included in broiler diets without influencing the carcass, sensory or meat quality characteristics. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

Seasonality and species are key aspects of the abiotic and biotic environment, respectively, that influence nutrient, phytochemical and antioxidant profiles of invasive alien plants leaf-meals. The current study investigated the effects of season on nutrient, amino acid, fatty acid, mineral, bioactive polyphenolic composition and antioxidant activity of Acacia mearnsii and A. dealbata leaf-meals. Overall, A. mearnsii leaf-meal harvested in the hot-dry-season had greater crude protein, ether extract, neutral detergent soluble fibre, 24 and 48 h in vitro neutral detergent fibre digestibility, macro-mineral contents, individual polyphenols, C18:1n9 and C18:2n6 compared to other leaf-meals. Regardless of the season, A. mearnsii leaf-meals had greater amino acid concentrations than A. dealbata leaf-meals. Hot-dry-season leaf-meals had a greater concentration of total flavonoids than the leaf-meals in the cool-wet-season irrespective of species. Antioxidant potency composite of the Acacia leaf-meals was in the order of A. dealbata × hot-dry-season > A. mearnsii × hot-dry-season > A. mearnsii × cool-wet-season > A. dealbata × cool-wet-season. The findings suggested that A. mearnsii leaf-meal harvested in the hot-dry-season has superior nutritional and polyphenolic profiles, which could support its use as a nutraceutical and preservative for the enhancement of ruminant production and product quality compared to other leaf meals.

The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of organic waste (pig manure and chicken layer droppings) on the production of house fly larvae (HFL) and its nutritive value. A completely randomised design was used, with three treatments (pig manure, chicken layer dropping and equal combination of the pig and chicken excreta) replicated six times. The data for biomass reduction, larvae wet and dry weight, moisture, ash, crude fibre, crude protein, fat, calcium and phosphorus were analysed using analysis of variance. While the least square means were generated using the Tukey's honestly significant difference. Pig manure produced the highest yield of HFL significantly (P < 0.05), as indicated by both wet (3.61 g) and dry (0.63 g) larvae weight. Introduction of HFL reduced organic waste by 39–42%. Furthermore, results indicated HFL to contain high protein 50-53%, considerable levels of Ca (1.32–1.465%) and P (1.72–2.09%) on as is basis. It can be concluded that pig manure and chicken layer droppings are suitable substrates for the production of HFL, which contain a suitable nutritional value for use as a protein source in animal diets. The study recommends further studies on HFL production on a larger scale for inclusion in animal diets.

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