Fishmeal Protein Replacement by Defatted and Full-Fat Black Soldier Fly Larvae Meal in Juvenile Turbot Diet: Effects on the Growth Performance and Intestinal Microbiota

Abstract

A 12-week feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effect of the same fishmeal protein level replaced by black soldier fly larvae (Hermetia illucens) meal (BSFL) with different lipid contents on the growth performance and intestinal health of juvenile turbot (Scophthalmus maximus L.) (initial body weight 12.64 g). Three isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets were formulated: fish meal-based diet (FM), diets DF and FF, in which 14% fish meal protein of the FM diet was replaced by defatted and full-fat BSFL, respectively. There were no significant differences in growth performance, intestinal morphology, and mucosal barrier function between the DF and the FM group. However, diet FF markedly reduced the growth performance, intestinal perimeter ratio, and the gene expression of anti-inflammatory cytokine TGF-β ( P < 0.05 ). Compared to group FF, the communities of intestinal microbiota in group DF were more similar to group FM. Moreover, diet DF decreased the abundance of some potential pathogenic bacteria and enriched the potential probiotics, such as Bacillus. Diet FF obviously altered the composition of intestinal microbiota and increased the abundance of some potential pathogenic bacteria. These results suggested that the application of defatted BSFL showed more positive effects on fish growth and intestinal health than the full-fat BSFL, and the intestinal microbiota was closely involved in these effects.

Partial replacement of fish meal with soldier termite in juvenile Mozambique tilapia: Effects on growth performance, blood serum chemistry and histomorphology

“…This phenomenon is common in fish fed insect-based diets (Fawole et al, 2020). It is well established that the decrease in growth performance at higher inclusion levels of insect-based diets is mainly caused by the presence of chitin (Shekarabi et al, 2021;Weththasinghe et al, 2022;Zhao et al, 2023). Insects contain close to 10% chitin (Belluco et al, 2013;Kinyuru et al, 2015;), and this compound has been reported to affect digestibility in fish species (Shekarabi et al, 2021).…”