Insect meal as an alternative feed ingredient in the diet of farm animals

   The results of research on new feeding products for farm animals are presented. Due to the reduction of fish meal production in Russia, as well as the unstable quality of commercial fish meal of animal origin, which is traditionally used as a source of complete protein, metabolizable energy and macronutrients in the diet of poultry, pigs, aquaculture, the issue of searching for alternative feed ingredients has become relevant. The possibility of replacing fish and meat and bone meal with meal from industrially cultured insects has been studied. The biochemical composition of feed meal from insects of different orders (Diptera, Orthoptera, Coleoptera, Blattodea) promising for industrial cultivation has been studied. Due to the high content of crude fat and crude protein, the metabolizable energy in this product, determined for poultry and pigs, had higher values (16.4–21.60 MJ/kg) than in the studied samples of commercial fish and meat and bone meal of domestic producers (13.7–18.73 MJ/kg). The crude protein content of insect meal from different insect orders had the values ranging from 45 to 87 %, with the proportion of pepsin digestible protein ranging from 59.2–87.6 %. The absolute amount of pepsin digestible protein in defatted meal from the insect species studied was 45.8–61.0 g/100 g and was comparable to the values obtained for defatted fish meal (43.9–72 g/100 g) and meat and bone meal (34.8–68.3) from different producers. At the same time, the content of macronutrients (calcium and phosphorus) of the product was significantly inferior to fish and meat and bone meal. Also, insect meal had a significant amount of chitin (4.1–7.2 %), which may have a significant impact on the feed value of the product.

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