Antioxidant-Optimised Insect Meal in Broiler Diets: A Systematic Approach to Enhance Growth Performance, Carcass...

Area of Science:

• Animal Science
• Food Science
• Biochemistry

Background:

• Lipid oxidation in meat products reduces quality and shelf-life.
• Insect meals are a sustainable protein source for animal feed.
• Optimizing insect meal composition can enhance meat quality and broiler performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically optimize insect meal composition in broiler feed.
• To leverage insects' intrinsic antioxidant properties to prevent lipid oxidation in meat.
• To establish a closed-loop system for sustainable broiler production.

Main Methods:

• High-resolution antioxidant profiling of candidate insects (e.g., Hermetia illucens, Tenebrio molitor) using HPLC-DPPH.
• Development of an antioxidant capacity index (ACI) for insect diets.
• Evaluation of broiler growth, carcass characteristics, and meat oxidative stability (MDA, PV) using insect diets with varying antioxidant content.

Main Results:

• Broiler diets with 5-15% insect meal inclusion improved performance with iso-nitrogen substitution for soybean meal.
• Protease addition enhanced chitin digestion and nutrient utilization.
• Insect meals optimized for antioxidant content improved broiler growth and meat oxidative stability, creating a nutritional stability score (NSS).

Conclusions:

• Optimized insect meals serve as both a growth efficiency and shelf-life extension agent for the poultry industry.
• The dynamic correlation of insect biochemistry with meat quality enables sustainable broiler production.
• This approach offers a dual benefit, improving animal performance and product longevity.