Effect of Replacing Dietary Fish Meal with Silkworm (Anaphe infracta) Caterpillar Meal on Performance, Carcass Characteristics and Haematological Parameters of Finishing Broiler Chicken

Abstract

The effects of substituting fish meal with different levels of silkworm (Anaphe infracta) caterpillar meal (SCM) on the growth, carcass characteristics haematology and economics of production formed the basis of this study. A total of one hundred and fifty four weeks old anak broilers were randomly allotted to five treatment groups in a completely randomized design with each treatment having thirty birds. Each treatment group was further divided into two replicates of fifteen birds per replicate. Five diets which had 100% FM: 0% SCM; 75% FM: 25% SCM; 50% FM: 50% SCM; 25% FM: 75% SCM and 0% FM: 100% SCM were formulated and labeled diets 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively with diet 1 serving as the control. Feed and water were provided ad-libitum. The performance in terms of feed intake (95.71g-98.25g), body weight gain (46.10g- 98.51g), feed conversion efficiency (1.98-2.08) and protein efficiency ratio (2.41-2.54) showed no significant (P > 0.05) differences across the dietary treatments. Analysis of weight of carcass and body cuts as well as blood parameters apart from blood albumin indicated no significant (P > 0.05) differences between the treatment means. Cost per kg of feed gradually decline with increasing dietary level of SCM inclusion levels indicating higher economic benefit. The result of this study revealed that the growth performance of the birds was not affected by the incorporation of silkworm caterpillar meal and it was more cost effective than conventional fish meal. It was concluded that cheaper silkworm caterpillar meal can be use as a complete substitute for fish meal in the diet of finishing broiler chickens.