Productive performance, egg-related indices, blood profiles, and interferon-? gene expression of laying Japanese quails fed on Tenebrio molitor larva meal as a replacement for fish meal

摘要

The present experiment was conducted to investigate effects of Tenebrio molitor (TM) as areplacement for fish meal on egg productive and qualitative traits, serum biochemical parameters,haematology and interferon-? gene expression in laying quails. A total of 250 layingJapanese quails (Coturnix japonica), at 74 days of age were randomly allotted to five dietarytreatments in a completely randomised design during a five-week period. Experimental treatmentsconsisted of a basal diet (CTL) or basal diet supplemented with 25% (7.5 g/kg; TM25),50% (15 g/kg; TM50), 75% (22.5 g/kg; TM75) and 100% (30 g/kg; TM100) TM larvae meal inreplace of fish meal. Total replacement of fish meal with TM larva meal significantly increaseddaily feed intake (DFI) of laying quails compared to CTL (p .05) but MT25, MT50 and MT75decreased DFI in comparison to CTL (p .05). Feed conversion ratio of quails fed with insectlarva meal was not different from those received CTL. Serum cholesterol concentration waslower in quails of M75 and M100 groups than those fed on the other dietary treatments(p .05). Haematological traits and interferon-? gene expression of quails were not affected bydietary supplemental TM larva meal. It was concluded that dietary inclusion of TM larva mealcan be used as replacement for fish meal in diet of laying quails up to 30 g/kg. Dietary supplementationof TM larva meal did not have any adverse effect on health status of laying quails.