Perfomance of Exotic Chicken fed insect-based diets effect on laying Capacity, Egg Characteristics and Economic Returns

Increasing demand for soybean meal and fishmeal for use in formulating animal feeds has led to increased prices and moreover their availability in future might be limited. Insect rearing can be part of the solution because they take a short period to mature, require small space and fewer resources to start. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of substituting fishmeal (FM)with black soldier fly larvae (BSFLM) at different inclusion levels, as a protein source in exotic chick, grower, and layers diets. The following parameters were measured, weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio (FCR), laying percentage, egg characteristics and economic implication. A total of 250-day old Isa Brown layer birds were used for this experimental trial that ran for 45 weeks. Diets were formulated based on five different inclusion levels of BSFLM to replace FM (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%). Chicks were randomly distributed into five treatments each with five birds per replicate and nine replications, while layer hens (75) were randomly placed in different cages each with 5 hens replicated 3 times and offered five different treatments. Data on weight gain, feed intake, egg characteristics, laying percentage, FCR and economic implication were analyzed using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) in SAS version 9.00 (2002) with completely randomized design (CRD) model. The significance between treatment means was tested at statistical significance level of 5% and separated using Tukey’s test. The results showed that most parameters were significantly (P0.05) difference recorded for grower birds’ parameters. The study also demonstrated that laying capacity was significantly (P0.05) different. Conventional layers diet (T1) was most expensive (Kes 45 per kg) while T5 was the cheapest (Kes 42/kg). In conclusion, high performance can be achieved at lower inclusion levels of BSFLM up to 50% in chicks’ diet and up to 75% in grower birds and layer hens’ diets. Thus,BSFL is a suitable alternative to FM in exotic birds’ diet.