Full-fat cricket meal can fully replace fish meal and partially replace soybean meal in the diets of weaning piglets.
Research in Thailand showed that the growth performance and health of the growing pigs was unaffected by a switch to diets using different levels of cricket meal, with added benefits in gut development and beneficial microbiota. On the basis of the work, replacement of traditional proteins is a “promising strategy,” the study’s authors said.
Range of diets, metrics used
The study used freeze-dried and ground field crickets, and 100 weaning pigs were randomly assigned to five dietary treatment groups, including a positive control diet of corn-soybean meal with 5% fishmeal and a negative control which didn’t include the animal protein. All experimental diets were designed to meet or exceed recommendations for weaning pigs.
Body weight and fee consumption were recorded on days 0, 14 and 28 of the study, while visual assessments were made to monitor diarrhoea. At the end of the study, four pigs from each group were selected randomly for slaughter to analyse intestine condition, while blood was taken from five healthy pigs per group on days 14 and 28 for more detailed molecular analysis.
Broad benefits
Two of the alternative diets using the insect protein resulted in improved average daily growth compared to negative controls, while diarrhoea was reduced in weaning pigs feeding on insects for the whole study period.
The diets including cricket meal also resulted in a number of additional benefits, including improved nutrient utilisation and intestine development, as well as higher levels of antioxidants and the probiotic Lactobacillus spp., which has demonstrated a role in combating E. coli.
“Our findings provide a basis for the expanded use of field cricket powder as a replacement for fish meal and soybean meal in livestock feed,” the researchers concluded.
You can read the full study, published in Journal of Animal Science.
