1. Insects – A Natural Nutrient Source for Poultry – A Review

Abstract

the consumption of poultry meat and eggs is expected to increase considerably in the nearest future, which creates the demand for new poultry feed ingredients in order to support sustainable intensive production. Moreover, the constant improvement of the genetic potential of poultry has resulted in an increased nutrient density in poultry feeds, which limits the possibility to include low quality feed ingredients. therefore, the feed industry needs new sources of highly digestible protein with a desirable amino acid composition to substitute other valuable but limited protein sources of animal origin, such as fishmeal. With estimated 1.5 to 3 million species, the class of insects harbours the largest species variety in the world including species providing a high protein and sulphur amino acids content, which can be successfully exploited as feed for poultry. the aim of this paper is to review the present state of knowledge concerning the use of insect protein in poultry nutrition and the possibilities of mass production of insects for the feed industry. there is no doubt that insects have an enormous potential as a source of nutrients (protein) and active substances (polyunsaturated fatty acids, antimicrobial peptides) for poultry. It can be concluded, based on many experimental results, that meals from insects being members of the orders Diptera (black soldier fly, housefly), Coleoptera (mealworms) and Orthoptera (grasshoppers, locust, crickets and katylids), may be successfully used as feed material in poultry diets. However, legislation barriers in the european union, as well as relatively high costs and limited quantity of produced insects are restrictions in the large-scale use of insect meals in poultry nutrition.

Nutritional value of three <i>Blattodea</i> species used as feed for animals

“…For adult females of the same species, Bosch et al (2014) reported high contents of valine, leucine, histidine, lysine and arginine, which is consistent with the levels found in B. dubia in this study. Moreover, Józefiak et al (2016) studied the EAA composition of B. lateralis subadult nymphs and found that tyrosine, arginine, valine and lysine were among the first five EAAs, which corresponds to the results obtained in this study. On the other hand, …”

Recent advances in role of insects as alternative protein source in poultry nutrition

“…Performance results after 15 d showed no significant differences among treatments. Fresh MW larvae contained 40% DM and 1.0-4.5% total ash (Józefiak et al 2016). The above stated results are main causes for limiting their supplement (up to 10% of DM of total diet) in the broiler diets.…”

“…The minimum and maximum values of CP, EE, ash, CF and energy in MW larvae were reported as 45-60% (Józefiak and Engberg 2015), 25-43% (van Broekhoven et al 2015;Józefiak and Engberg 2015), 3.0-4.5% (RamosElorduy et al 2002;Józefiak and Engberg 2015), 5.0-8.8% (Ramos-Elorduy et al 2002;Józefiak and Engberg 2015) and 244-781 cal/kg DM, respectively (Finke 2002;De Marco et al 2015). The total CP content of MW adult, exuvium and excreta were reported as 63.34, 32.87, and 18.51%, respectively (Ravzanaadii et al 2012).…”

Insect proteins as a potential source of antimicrobial peptides in livestock production. A review

“…Reviews on the nutritive value of different insects and their meals including black soldier fly larvae, housefly maggot and pupae, mealworms, silkworm pupae, as well as locusts, grasshoppers and crickets demonstrate their potential application as an alternative protein source in the nutrition of different livestock species (Makkar et al, 2014;Sánchez-Muros et al, 2014;Józefiak et al, 2016). However, little is known about their possible secondary effects which can be related to a wide range of small peptides known as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs).…”