Tenebrio molitor and Zophobas morio Full-Fat Meals in Broiler Chicken Diets: Effects on Nutrients Digestibility, Digestive Enzyme Activities, and Cecal Microbiome

Abstract

Simple Summary: In animal nutrition, the links among health status, alimentary tract factors and gastrointestinal tract (GIT) integrity are increasing in importance. It has been documented that insects are useful as novel ingredients in poultry diets because they contain bioactive compounds such as chitin, melanin, and antimicrobial peptides, in addition to protein and dietary fat, and these bioactive compounds have been reported to modulate the GIT microbiome. From this perspective, insects could be promising functional feed additives to stimulate GIT health through inhibition of potentially pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, we evaluated the effect of the addition of a small amount of insects to the broiler chicken diet on the GIT microbiota composition and activity. Six experimental groups were used in the current study, i.e., two different levels (0.2% and 0.3%) of yellow mealworm and super mealworm full-fat meals, a positive control with salinomycin addition, and a negative control without any additives. Insect full-fat meals were capable of improving the health status of the birds by a positive reduction in potentially pathogenic bacteria in the cecal digesta and stimulation of the GIT microbiome to produce enzymes, especially glycolytic enzymes.Abstract: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of insect full-fat meals added in relatively small amounts to a complete diet on the coefficients of apparent ileal digestibility, short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) concentrations, bacterial enzymes, and the microbiota community in the cecal digesta of broiler chickens. In total, 600 one-day-old female Ross 308 broiler chicks were randomly assigned to six dietary treatments with 10 replicate pens/treatment and 10 birds/pen. The groups consisted of a negative control (NC) with no additives; a positive control (PC; salinomycin 60 ppm), and supplementation with 0.2% or 0.3% Tenebrio molitor or Zophobas morio full-fat meals. Z. morio (0.2%) addition increased the activities of αand β-glucosidase and α-galactosidase. Dietary insects significantly decreased the cecal counts of the Bacteroides-Prevotella cluster in comparison to those in the NC and PC. Whereas, Clostridium perfringens counts were increased in the broiler chickens subjected to the 0.3% Z. morio treatment. In conclusion, small amounts of full-fat insect meals added to broiler diets were capable of reducing the abundance of potentially pathogenic bacteria, such as the Bacteroides-Prevotella cluster and Clostridium perfringens. In addition, this supplementation was able to stimulate the GIT microbiome to produce enzymes, especially glycolytic enzymes. resources, D.J.; data curation, A.B., B.K. and D.J.; writing-original draft, A.B.; writing-review and editing

Evaluation of Yellow Mealworm Meal as a Protein Feedstuff in the Diet of Broiler Chicks

“…Insect meal in broiler chicks' diet can improve the meat quality, which is due to the functional ingredients in the insect [21]. Moreover, diets containing full-fat MWM have the potential to reduce Bacteroides-Prevotella cluster and Clostridium perfringens in broiler chicks [22].…”

Fatty acid profiles of some insect oils and their effects onin vitrobovine rumen fermentation and methanogenesis

“…Insects have been used as a feed ingredient in a number of animal species, such as broiler chickens (Schiavone et al 2017;Benzertiha et al 2019), laying hens (Borrelli et al 2017;Bovera et al 2018), swine (Biasato et al 2019) and aquatic animals (Belforti et al 2015;Gasco et al 2016). However, their utilisation in the feeding of ruminants has been limited.…”

The Superworm, Zophobas morio (Coleoptera:Tenebrionidae): A ‘Sleeping Giant’ in Nutrient Sources

“…The authors reported a positive effect on the body weight gain and feed intake, moreover, there was a positive effect on the level of plasma immunoglobulins, i.e., IgY and IgM. In a similar study, Benzertiha et al (2019) evaluated the effect of Z. morio full-fat meal added in small amounts (0.2 and 0.3%) to a complete diet on the coefficients of apparent ileal digestibility, pancreatic enzyme activity, short-chain fatty acid concentrations, bacterial enzymes, and microbiota community in the cecal digesta of broiler chickens and they did not report any negative effects on the nutrient ileal digestibility coefficients or the activity of pancreatic enzymes. In the same study, dietary inclusion of Z. morio full-fat meal was capable of improving the health status of the birds by reducing pathogenic bacterial concentrations, such as those of the Bacteroides – Prevotella cluster and Clostridium perfringens .…”