Different studies have shown that insect meals can partially or completely replace the fish and soya bean meals that are commonly used in aquaculture. However, information is lacking on the amino acid and fatty acid contents and digestibility of different insect meals. Moreover, we evaluated different proportions of insect diets and determined how these affected the nutritional values of insect meals. Our purpose was to clarify these aspects and consider the availability of protein, amino acids, lipids and fatty acids in insect meals in fish nutrition. Generally, insect meals have higher indispensable amino acid contents than other meal types, with contents closely related to those in fish meal. Insect meal can be an important source of essential amino acids such as methionine, with contents ranging between 0.47 and 4.03 g 100 g⁻¹ sample. These values are higher than those reported for other animal and plant meals. In addition, insects are also good sources of lipids and fatty acids, and the amounts and types of fatty acids vary according to the species, stage of development and type of feed. Moreover, the additional nutritional value of insect meal includes compounds such as chitin, which is primarily considered a fibre but also contains nitrogen and amino acids. Insect peptides with activity against pathogenic microflora provide secondary biological effects, which may significantly improve animal health.

The consumption of poultry meat and eggs is expected to increase considerably in the nearest future, which creates the demand for new poultry feed ingredients in order to support sustainable intensive production. Moreover, the constant improvement of the genetic potential of poultry has resulted in an increased nutrient density in poultry feeds, which limits the possibility to include low quality feed ingredients. Therefore, the feed industry needs new sources of highly digestible protein with a desirable amino acid composition to substitute other valuable but limited protein sources of animal origin, such as fishmeal. With estimated 1.5 to 3 million species, the class of insects harbours the largest species variety in the world including species providing a high protein and sulphur amino acids content, which can be successfully exploited as feed for poultry. The aim of this paper is to review the present state of knowledge concerning the use of insect protein in poultry nutrition and the possibilities of mass production of insects for the feed industry. There is no doubt that insects have an enormous potential as a source of nutrients (protein) and active substances (polyunsaturated fatty acids, antimicrobial peptides) for poultry. It can be concluded, based on many experimental results, that meals from insects being members of the orders Diptera (black soldier fly, housefly), Coleoptera (mealworms) and Orthoptera (grasshoppers, locust, crickets and katylids), may be successfully used as feed material in poultry diets. However, legislation barriers in the European Union, as well as relatively high costs and limited quantity of produced insects are restrictions in the large-scale use of insect meals in poultry nutrition.

This study provides data on the use of black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) full-fat meal (BSFL) in Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii) nutrition, examining pellet physical properties, growth performance, feed acceptance and utilization, apparent protein, and fat digestibility. The study consisted of: feed quality assessment; a growth performance; feed acceptance; digestibility trials. The effect of the use of BSFL as a replacement for fish meal (FM) and fish oil (FO) was investigated. The applied BSFL shares were 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, and 30% of the diet, replacing up to 61.3% of FM and allowing us to reduce FO use by up to 95.4% in the case of 30% incorporation. The applied substitution affected feed quality, increasing the expansion rate, and decreasing feed density, sinking speed and water stability. However, body weight gain, specific growth rate, feed, and protein conversion ratios, were improved in groups fed BSFL. Moreover, feed acceptance was increased with treatments containing 10 to 30% BSFL. No effects on nutrients digestibility were observed. The results show that the use of BSFL as an FM and FO replacement may have positive effects on sturgeon growth performance, and BSFL can be developed as a promising alternative feed material.

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of insect full-fat meals (Tenebrio molitor and Zophobas morio larvae), added “on top” of a complet

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of Tenebrio molitor (TM) oil as a total replacement for palm oil and poultry fat in broiler chicken diets on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, pancreatic enzyme activity, selected blood parameters and the lipid fatty acid compositions of liver and breast muscle tissues. A total of 72 seven-day-old female Ross 308 broiler chickens were used. The birds were randomly distributed into three groups with 12 replicates each, using two birds per replicate for 30 days in metabolic cages. The basal diet was supplemented with 5% palm oil, poultry fat or TM oil. There was no effect (p > 0.05) caused by the dietary oil replacement on the birds’ performance and apparent nutrient digestibility. Liver size (p = 0.033), the concentration of hepatic triglycerides (p = 0.049) and total cholesterol (p = 0.048) were reduced by TM oil supplementation. Furthermore, TM oil supplementation increased n-3 and n-6 fatty acids (p = 0.006; p < 0.001, respectively) in breast muscle tissue. In conclusion, the use of TM oil in broiler chickens’ diets did not show any adverse effects on performance, nutrient digestibility and blood biochemical parameters. Moreover, TM oil supplementation improved the fatty acid profiles of liver and breast muscle tissues.