Productive performance, egg-related indices, blood profiles, and interferon-&x194; gene expression of laying Japanese quails fed on Tenebrio molitor larva meal as a replacement for fish meal

The present experiment was conducted to investigate effects of Tenebrio molitor (TM) as a replacement for fish meal on egg productive and qualitative traits, serum biochemical parameters, haematology and interferon-gamma gene expression in laying quails. A total of 250 laying Japanese quails (Coturnix japonica), at 74 days of age were randomly allotted to five dietary treatments in a completely randomised design during a five-week period. Experimental treatments consisted 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 in replace of fish meal. Total replacement of fish meal with TM larva meal significantly increased daily feed intake (DFI) of laying quails compared to CTL (p < .05) but MT25, MT50 and MT75 decreased DFI in comparison to CTL (p < .05). Feed conversion ratio of quails fed with insect larva meal was not different from those received CTL. Serum cholesterol concentration was lower in quails of M75 and M100 groups than those fed on the other dietary treatments (p < .05). Haematological traits and interferon-gamma gene expression of quails were not affected by dietary supplemental TM larva meal. It was concluded that dietary inclusion of TM larva meal can be used as replacement for fish meal in diet of laying quails up to 30 g/kg. Dietary supplementation of TM larva meal did not have any adverse effect on health status of laying quails.