Laying performance, egg quality, haematological traits, and faecal noxious gas emission of laying hens fed with Tenebrio molitor meal
Hong-Rim Ko, Yo Han Choi, S. Khun, Eun-Ju Cho, Y.Y. Kim, J.S. Pi, Kyu-Hyun Park, Jisun Kim, S.H. Lee, J.S. Kim
Abstract
In the present study the effect of inclusion of different levels of dietary Tenebrio molitor larvae meal (TM) as a dietary protein source on laying performance , egg quality, amino acid and fatty acid profile of egg yolk, haematological traits, cytokines, and faecal noxious gas emission was investigated in laying hen . One hundred and ninety-two 41 weeks old laying hens (Hy-Line Brown; average BW 1973 ± 28 g) with similar egg production were randomly divided into 4 treatments, including control (without TM), TM1 (1%), TM2 (2%), and TM3 (3%) with 6 replicates per treatment and 8 hens per replicate. The feeding study lasted 56 days. Yolk colour increased linearly when TM was added to the diet (P < 0.05). Concentration of yolk histidine was linearly increased as the TM level increased. An increase in the palmitoleic acid and oleic acid ratio of egg yolk (P < 0.01) and a linear increase in the ratio of linoleic acid were observed with increasing dietary TM levels. In addition, the α-linolenic acid content of egg yolk was quadratically affected (P < 0.05) by an increase in dietary TM. There was also a linear increase (P < 0.05) in total polyunsaturated fatty acid of egg yolk, however, total short-chain and monounsaturated fatty acids were not affected. A linear decrease was observed in the plasma concentration of IL-4 with increasing dietary levels of TM at week 4. Plasma IL-2 concentration decreased linearly (P < 0.01) with increasing dietary TM-levels at week 8. In conclusion, in this study dietary TM-supplementation induced no improvement in egg production but positively affected the egg quality by improving the yolk colour and increasing the yolk content of linolenic acid and unsaturated fatty acid .