Performance of laying hens when replacing soybean cake and oil by insect larval protein meal and fat

Summary

There is a great interest in integrating insects into livestock nutrition as a replacement for soybean, but research about the feeding value of insect protein meal and fat of larvae grown on different substrates is rare. In the present study, 5×10 laying hens were fed defatted black soldier fly (BSF) meal and larval fat from two contrasting substrates (preconsumer food waste and feed grade material). Feed intake, body weight and laying performance did not differ during 26 days of treatment feeding. Egg weight and egg mass were most favorable with larvae grown on feed grade material and soybean oil. These results show that the larval fat can be considered as a valuable feed ingredient as well and that larval protein seems to have a high protein value.