Growth performance, welfare traits and meat characteristics of broilers fed diets partly replaced with whole Tenebrio molitor larvae

Vasilopoulos, Stylianos; Giannenas, Ιlias; Savvidou, Soumela; Bonos, Eleftherios; Rumbos, Christos I.; Papadopoulos, Elias; Fortomaris, P.; Athanassiou, Christos G.

doi:10.1016/j.aninu.2022.12.002

Cited by 17 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…It appears that there is a relationship between the content of dietary phenols in the meat and its resistance to oxidative damage. These observations are in agreement with previous studies, which reported that the use of T. molitor in monogastric animal diets can improve the oxidative stability of the meat [ 47 , 82 ]. Xu et al reported that incorporating chitosan into the diets of weaned piglets led to an increase in total antioxidant capacity along with a reduction in the levels of MDA and cortisol in serum [ 10 ].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

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Combined Dietary Supplementation of Tenebrio molitor Larvae and Chitosan in Growing Pigs: A Pilot Study

Zacharis,

Bonos,

Voidarou

et al. 2024

Veterinary Sciences

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Nowadays, the global animal industry faces considerable challenges in securing sufficient feed resources. Responding to consumer demands for reduced use of antibiotics in animal nutrition, better animal welfare status, and reduced impact on the environment, there is an increased urgency to develop innovative functional feeds with a reduced environmental footprint and the ability to improve meat quality and safety. In an effort to explore innovative feed ingredients for growing pig diets, the combined dietary supplementation of Tenebrio molitor larvae and chitosan was investigated. An experimental trial was performed with 48 weaned pigs (34 days of life; mixed sex) that were randomly assigned to four treatment groups (with six males and six females each): Group A (control), Group B (supplemented with T. molitor larvae at 10%), Group C (supplemented with chitosan at 0.05%), and Group D (supplemented with both ingredients at 10% and 0.05%, respectively). On the 42nd day of the experimental trial, samples of blood, feces, and carcass parts were taken for analysis. The results indicated that the insect larvae meal significantly improved (p < 0.05) overall performance, increased (p < 0.05) blood red blood cell content, increased meat phenolic content (p < 0.05), improved meat oxidative stability (p < 0.05), and affected meat fatty acid profile (p < 0.05). On the other hand, chitosan had no significant effect on overall performance (p > 0.05), but it significantly increased blood lymphocyte content (p < 0.05), affected the fecal microbiota (p < 0.05), improved meat oxidative stability (p < 0.05), increased meat phenolic content (p < 0.05), and affected meat fatty acid composition (p < 0.05) and (p < 0.05) meat color. Finally, the combined use of both T. molitor and chitosan significantly affected some important zootechnical parameters (p < 0.05), fecal microbial populations (p < 0.05), meat color (p < 0.05), and fatty acid profile (p < 0.05). Further investigation into the potential interaction between insect larvae meals and chitosan in pig diets is advised.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…A modified Folin–Ciocalteu method [ 46 ] was utilized to measure the total polyphenols in the meat subsamples from the shoulder, belly, and boneless steak, following the procedure described by Vasilopoulos et al [ 47 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combined Dietary Supplementation of Tenebrio molitor Larvae and Chitosan in Growing Pigs: A Pilot Study

Zacharis,

Bonos,

Voidarou

et al. 2024

Veterinary Sciences

Self Cite

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“…The three diets were formulated to be isocaloric and isonitrogenous. The total phenolic content of the diets was analyzed with the Folin–Ciocalteu method as described by Vasilopoulos et al [ 26 ]. Table 1 presents the ingredients and chemical composition of the three diets.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Utilization of Tenebrio molitor Larvae Reared with Different Substrates as Feed Ingredients in Growing Pigs

Zacharis

Bonos

Giannenas

et al. 2023

Veterinary Sciences

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The procurement of adequate feed resources is one of the most important challenges for the animal industry worldwide. While the need for feeds rich in protein is constantly increasing, their production cannot readily keep up. Consequently, to overcome this challenge in a sustainable way, it is necessary to identify and develop new feeding strategies and feed ingredients, such as insect meals. In the present study, Tenebrio molitor larvae that were reared on two different substrates (standard and enriched with medicinal aromatic plant material) were used as feed ingredients for growing pigs. A total of 36 weaned pigs (34 days old) were randomly allocated to three treatment groups and fed either the control diet (A) or diets supplemented at 10% with one of the two insect meals (B and C). At the end of the trial (42 days), blood, feces, and meat samples were collected for analysis. The insect meal supplementation did not affect (p > 0.05) overall performance but significantly modified (p < 0.001) the fecal microflora balance and the blood cholesterol (p < 0.001), while the rest of the blood parameters tested were not affected. Moreover, this dietary supplementation significantly affected some microbial populations (p < 0.001), improved the total phenolic content (p < 0.05), and the fatty acid profile (p < 0.001) of the meat cuts, but did not affect (p > 0.05) meat color or proximate composition. Further research is needed to evaluate the different types and levels of inclusion of insect meals in pig nutrition.

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“…The trial was approved by the General Assembly of the School of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Health Science, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (928/17-1-2020) and the Institutional and licensing committee approving the experiments for PhD Theses, in accordance with relevant national and EU guidelines and regulations in accordance with ARRIVE guidelines. The experimental protocol has been analytically described in the previous paper [17] . The basal diet was replaced with whole dried TM larvae at 5% (TM5 group) and 10% (TM10 group) to form the two experimental treatments (TM5 had 95% and TM10 had 90% of the basal diet remaining).…”

Section: Animal and Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diet replacement with whole insect larvae affects intestinal morphology and microbial ecosystem of broiler chickens

Vasilopoulos

Giannenas

Stylianaki

et al. 2023

Preprint

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A trial with 120 day-old Ross-308 broilers that were randomly allocated in three treatments with 10 birds in each pen was conducted to evaluate whether a control commercialised maize and soybean meal in mash form or this diet containing whole TM larvae at 5% (TM5) or 10% (TM10), respectively would affect either the intestinal morphometry in small intestine or intestinal microbiome on ileum or the ceca of broilers. On d35 intestinal samples were collected either in 10% buffered formalin for histopathological assessment or digesta from ileal and caecal parts were assessed for their bacterial community diversity through 16S rRNA gene high-throughput amplicon sequencing on the V3-V4 hypervariable region. Histomorphometric investigation revealed higher duodenum Vh in TM5, higher jejunum Cd but lower duodenum Cd (P ≤ 0.05) in the treated groups. Intestinal bacterial microbiota showed varying implications; Lactobacilli and Staphylococci were eminent in the caecum. Bacteroides were found increased in TM5 and Lactobacilli and Cutibacterium were found increased in TM10. In the ileum of TM5, several Bacteroides and Lactobacilli species, Enterococcus durans and Streptococcus gallolyticus decreased, whereas most Lactobacilli decreased and Clostridium jejuni increased in TM10. Diet supplementation with TM larve can alter the composition of gastrointestinal microbiota both on ileum and cecum.

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Growth performance, welfare traits and meat characteristics of broilers fed diets partly replaced with whole Tenebrio molitor larvae

Cited by 17 publications

References 54 publications

Combined Dietary Supplementation of Tenebrio molitor Larvae and Chitosan in Growing Pigs: A Pilot Study

Combined Dietary Supplementation of Tenebrio molitor Larvae and Chitosan in Growing Pigs: A Pilot Study

Utilization of Tenebrio molitor Larvae Reared with Different Substrates as Feed Ingredients in Growing Pigs

Diet replacement with whole insect larvae affects intestinal morphology and microbial ecosystem of broiler chickens

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