Defatted meal of the Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens) as a protein ingredient for feedlot lambs.

• Grant number: 23/07475-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: September 01, 2023
• End date: February 28, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Nutrition and Feeding
• Principal Investigator: Evandro Maia Ferreira
• Grantee: Jamile Haddad Comelli
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The search for alternative ingredients becomes more and more necessary to guarantee the current and future demands for food in an efficient and sustainable way, so the objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of the use of defatted Hermetia illucens flour (Black Soldier Fly - BSF) as a protein ingredient in diets of lambs on performance, carcass traits, blood parameters and fatty acid profile of meat (Experiment I), as well as on intake and apparent digestibility of nutrients, nitrogen balance, microbial protein synthesis, traits of rumen fermentation (Experiment II). In the two experiments, the control diet will present 150 g/kg of soybean meal without the addition of BSF (BSF0), in the other diets the crude protein (CP) from the BSF will replace the CP of the soybean meal from the control diet in the rates of 50 (BSF50) and 100% (BSF100), resulting in 0; 61.6 and 123.0 g/kg of BSF defatted flour in dietary DM. In experiment I, 30 lambs, not castrated, with an average initial body weight of approximately 20 kg and 80 days old, will be distributed in a randomized complete block design (3 treatments 10 blocks) and confined for 60 days to evaluate performance, carcass traits, blood parameters and meat fatty acid profile. In experiment II, 6 lambs, castrated and cannulated in the rumen, with approximate initial body weight of 40 kg and 6 months old, will be distributed in a 3 x 3 double latin square design, to evaluate the apparent digestibility of nutrients, nitrogen balance, microbial protein synthesis and ruminal fermentation. All data will be analyzed using SAS (1999) and effects will be declared significant when P < 0.05.