Evaluating the biological conversion of paddy husk to house fly, Musca domestica L (Diptera: Muscidae) pupa powder: a study of house fly as animal feed

• Main Authors: Ong, Song-Quan, Hamdan Ahmad,
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Pusat Sistematik Serangga, Fakulti Sains dan Teknologi, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2015
• Online Access: http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10959/1/12716-34729-1-SM.pdf; http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10959/; http://ejournal.ukm.my/serangga/issue/view/753/showToc

The sector of livestock and aquaculture are growing rapidly in order to meet the incremental demand of essential protein for the world’s population. However, the supply of plant-based animal feed was limited by resources such as land and water. The opportunity for insect as the substitute to animal feed is tremendous; nonetheless, little attention was taken in Malaysia. In this study, low value bio-waste, paddy husks, which were in pellet form were prior ground and dried, then fed to larva of common house fly, Musca domestica L (Diptera: Muscidae).House fly pupae were collected, dried and ground into powder for analysis. Weight-conversion and nutrition value were studied by applying standard AOAC and FAO methods. The paddy husk to pupa weight conversion was 4.10%, in other words, 41g housefly pupae powder could obtained from 1kg of paddy husk. For the nutritional analysis, house fly pupae powder consists of 68.90% crude protein, which was significantly higher that the paddy husk (15.65% crude protein, <0.001). This study indicating a significant conversion of a low value material to highly protein contained animal feed and this transformation was crucial in providing an alternative solution for animal feed.