Housefly Maggot Meal as a Potent Bioresource for Fish Feed to Facilitate Early Gonadal Development in Clarias gariepinus (Burchell,1822)

Abstract

Food security is threatened by the global increase of human population, climate change, inequality of wealth distribution, the state of natural resources, peace and sustainability, among others. Aquaculture has become an important part of the food supply, hence contributing to food security. Sustainable fish production, which represents an important affordable protein supply, should therefore involve feed formulation and production techniques that are not dependent on fish meal as the protein source. It is on this basis that bioeconomy becomes very important to promote the resourceful use of biomass for feed, food, biomaterials, and bioenergy. This study presents housefly maggot meal as an efficient alternative protein source to fishmeal and a valuable bioresource. Clarias gariepinus fingerlings (male and female) were fed maggot meal supplemented diets for 24 weeks and we assessed their growth and gonadal development. The findings of this study revealed that maggot-meal-enhanced diets promoted growth and faster gonadal development in fish. Maggot meal represents a quality alternative protein source to fish meal and an excellent bioresource, which can help us attain sustainable aquaculture production.

Insects Such as Termites Hold a Promising Future for the African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus)

“…Before such food samples are analyzed, sorting is a method to eliminate any visibly present soil, dust, and other physical pollutants. The average value of 15.8 g/100 g reported for fish [37] is lower than the ash content of termites, which is also lower. The carbohydrate content per 100 grams varies from 0.7 to 8.7 g. However, another study [39] recorded a value of up to 29.0 g/100 g. The range of dietary fiber per 100 grams is 6.2 to 7.2 g. Because chitin and cellulose have structural similarities, the fiber seen in insects is actually chitin [24].…”

“…Termites have excellent protein quality that is advantageous for human and animal nutrition [5], even though these values are lower than those recorded in fish (70.6 g/100 g) and soybean (51.8 g/100 g) [37]. As can be seen in Table 1, the termites' lipid content varied from 44.8 to 47.3 g/100 g. Another study [38] found 19.70-24.10 g/100 g for various termite species in Nigeria, while a previous study [35], also recorded 53.4 g/100 g for sun-dried termites.…”

“…As can be seen in Table 1, the termites' lipid content varied from 44.8 to 47.3 g/100 g. Another study [38] found 19.70-24.10 g/100 g for various termite species in Nigeria, while a previous study [35], also recorded 53.4 g/100 g for sun-dried termites. Termites should be defatted prior to use as meal in order to bring the lipid content of termites to the levels reported in fish (9.9) and soybean (2.0) [37].…”

Unravelling the genetics of fat accumulation in the house fly to foster circular economy

“…The nutritional profile of the larvae covers the amino acid requirements of many fish of commercial interest (Nogales-Mérida et al, 2018) and its application as ingredient for the aquaculture sector has given encouraging results. Many investigations have been conducted on freshwater aquacultured species such as the Nile tilapia (Ogunji et al, 2007;Ogunji et al, 2009;Ezewudo et al, 2015;Wang et al 2017;Alofa et al, 2020), different species of catfish (Sogbesan et al, 2006;Dong et al, 2013;Ipinmoroti et al, 2015;Ogunji et al, 2021, Fawole 2023), carp species (Ogunji et al, 2009,Dong et al, 2013 and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss; Spinelli, 1980;St-Hilaire et al, 2007), as well as marine and brackish species (Ido et al, 2015;Lin & Mui, 2017;Panteli et al, 2021;Mastoraki et al, 2020).…”

“…Positive effects on growth were obtained at high inclusion rates (65 -75 % of total diet; Ipinmoroti et al, 2019;Ogunji et al, 2021). However, inclusions higher than 30% lowered growth performance in Nile tilapia (Aniebo et al, 2009;Fasakin et al, 2003).…”