Growing Trial of Gilthead Sea Bream (Sparus aurata) Juveniles Fed on Chironomid Meal as a Partial Substitution for Fish Meal

Abstract

Insect meal derived from chironomid larvae and collected from aquatic environments was included in the feed of gilthead sea bream juveniles (75 ± 1.1 g) in a growth trial of 90 days. Three feeds, which were namely one control (L1) and two experimental diets (L2, L3), were analyzed and formulated as isonitrogenous (45%) and isolipidic (13%). In L1, the protein source was mainly soybean meal (32%), followed by fish meal (20%), wheat meal (20%), gluten corn (17%), and hemoglobin (11%). In L2, the proportion of soybean meal was increased (33.5%), followed by gluten corn (21%), wheat meal (14%), and hemoglobin (11%), whereas the fish meal source was reduced (15%) due to the inclusion of chironomids (5%). In L3, the proportion of fish meal was further reduced (8%) and that of chironomid meal was increased to 10% of the protein source. The L2 and L3 groups showed similar growth performances with respect to the L1 group. The feed conversion rate was favorable in all the groups, ranging from 1.18 (L1) to 1.22 (L3). Survival rates varied from 93.62% (L3) to 94.31% (L1). Feed palatability showed similar results for all diets. Although the inclusion of chironomid meal was used in small quantities, our results suggest a significant advantage in replacing 50% of the fish meal with the chironomid meal for growing gilthead sea bream fishes.

A meta-analysis on the nutritional value of insects in aquafeeds

“…Some insect meals contained essential AAs below the requirement of most aquatic species. Arginine was, for example, low in some full-fat BSF meals (Fabrikov et al, 2020;Józefiak et al, 2019b), while the content of this AA was higher in defatted mealworm and aquatic insects (Basto et al, 2020;Roncarati et al, 2019). The variations in AA composition, even within the same insect species and similar processing of the meal, emphasises the importance of analysing AA composition before the production of any insect-containing feed.…”

Recent advances in the utilization of insects as an ingredient in aquafeeds: A review

“…The growth performance and feed utilization effects of several insects have been studied in aquaculture. These include BSF ( Fawole et al., 2020 ; Peng et al., 2021b ), yellow mealworm ( T. molitor ) ( Sankian et al., 2018 ), housefly ( M. domestica ) ( Hashizume et al., 2019 ), mopane worm ( I. belina ) ( Rapatsa and Moyo 2017 ), chironomid ( Roncarati et al., 2019 ) and cricket ( G. bismasculatus ) ( Taufek et al., 2016 ), with BSF being the most studied insect in aquaculture. Insects can be utilized either as dry meals ( Jeong et al., 2021 ; Kamarudin et al., 2021 ), pulps ( Peng et al., 2021a , 2021b ), or oils ( Belghit et al., 2018 ; Xu et al., 2020a ; Abu Bakar et al., 2021 ).…”

“…Furthermore, the housefly ( M. domestica ) ( Hashizume et al., 2019 ), mopane worm ( I. belina ) ( Rapatsa and Moyo, 2017 ), chironomid ( Roncarati et al., 2019 ) and cricket ( G. bismasculatu s) ( Taufek et al., 2016 ) are some of the insects that showed potential to be used as protein ingredients to improve fish growth, however, more research is deemed important.…”