Nutritional value of Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia Illucens) Larvae and its potential as an ingredient in the practical diets for Hybrid Grouper (Tiger Grouper, Epinephelus Fuscoguttatus X Giant Grouper, Epinephelus Lanceolatus)

• Main Author: Nor Fatin Najihah Mohamad Zulkifli
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: QH1-(199.5) General Including nature conservation, geographical distribution; SH151-179 Fish culture
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/42275/1/24%20PAGES.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/42275/2/FULLTEXT.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/42275/

Insect meal is gaining popularity as an alternative protein source to reduce the dependency on fishmeal in the formulation of aquaculture feed and many aspects require further investigations to understand the full potential of this ingredient. In the present study, the nutritiona I value of three different types of black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae (BSFL) meal; spray-dried BSFL (SPR), oven-dried BSFL 1 (OVNl) and oven-dried BSFL 2 (OVN2) were studied. The tested BSFL meals were considered to have a good profile of essential amino acids (EAAs) with leucine, lysine, valine, and histidine being the dam inant EAAs. Meanwhile, the content of saturated fatty acids is higher than the unsaturated fatty acids. Vitamin Bl, 82, and C were also detected in the samples. Minerals such as cak:ium, potassium, phosphorus, sodium, magnesium, zinc, iron, manganese and copper were found to be abundant in almost all samples. Heavy metals found in the BSFL meals were mostly below 1g kg. Nucleotides such as inosine monophosphate and uridine monophosphate were found present in all the BSFL meals. While other nucleotides such as guanosine monophosphate, adenosine monophosphate, xanthosine monophosphate, and c.ytidine monophosphate were detected in either/both of SPR and OVN2. In general, the nutritiona I values of the BSFL meals tested in the present study were influenced by the food given to the larvae during rearing and the life stages of the larvae. The second part of the study was carried out to examine the apparent digestibility coefficient (ADC) of dry matter (ADC), protein (ADC»), and lipid (ADC-) of the BSFL meals in the diets formulated for hybrid grouper (Epinephe/us fuscoguttatus x E. lanceolatus). A reference diet (RD) was formulated using fishmeal and soybean meal. Meanwhile, the test diets were formulated to contain 70% RD and 30% BSFL meal. The ADC values were significantly influenced (p <0.05) by the types of .BSFL meal. The highest ADC» and ADC» of the test diets were observed in fish fed with RD (85.88% and 94.32%, respectively), followed by OVNl (84.20% and 92.56%, respectively), SPR (81. 77% and 91.04%, respectively), and OVN2 (78.28% and 90.93%, respectively). The ADC:» of SPR and OVN2 BSFL meal were not significantly different (p<0.05) from each other, however, both were significantly lower (p<0.05) than the OVN1 BSFL meal. Generally, the ADC,y and ADC-, of the BSFL meal-based diets can be ranked as OVN2<SPR<OVN1. The ADCCL of fish fed with the OVN2 diet showed the highest digestibility (99.15%) which was not significantly different (p<0.05) from the fish fed with RD (98.94%). Weight gain (659.02-978.36 %), feed intake (84.59-110.04 g fish") and survival (97.78-100.00 %) of the fish fed with BSFL meal-based diets exhibited no significant differences from fish fed with RD. The present findings suggested that BSFL meal have large nutritional benefits and is highly digestible by the fish and can be used as an excellent alternative protein source in the practical diets to replace fishmeal without affecting growth, feed efficiency and survival of hybrid grouper ( £ fuscoguttatusx E. lanceolatus).