Growth performance and intestinal morphometric features of broiler chickens fed on dietary inclusion of yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) larvae powder.

Background: Climate change and the lack of conventional feed ingredients have made edible insects a highly nutritious alternative to feed production. The use of insects as food may help solve socio-economic and environmental problems around the world and be in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Objective: In this study, the growth performance and intestinal morphology of broiler chickens were evaluated under the influence of adding different levels of Tenebrio molitor larvae meal (TM meal) to their diets.

Methods: One hundred and eighty one-day-old broiler chickens were divided into three treatments and five replications (12 chickens/pen). The experimental diets included a control diet and treatments containing 2.5% and 5% TM meal, which were fed to birds in the starter (0-10 days) and grower (11-25 days) stages, and during the final period (26-42 days), all birds were fed a regular finisher diet.

Results: The results showed that the diet containing TM meal had no remarkable effect on the mortality rate and feed intake of broilers (p > 0.05). In the starter period, the addition of 2.5% TM meal to broilers' diet increased body weight gain than the control group (p ≤ 0.05). Also, the use of 2.5% TM meal in the starter period showed a significant effect on reducing the feed conversion ratio, compared to the birds fed by the control diet (p ≤ 0.05). Besides, the height of the villus, the depth of the crypt and their ratio were not altered among the different treatments (p > 0.05).

Conclusions: Overall, it can be concluded that TM meal could improve growth performance in the starter period and had no negative effects on broilers' performance and intestinal morphology in all the periods of the experiment.