Nutrition value of the Chinese grasshopper Acrida cinerea (Thunberg) for broilers

The chemical composition, amino acid content, true amino acid digestibility and TMEn for poultry of adult Chinese grasshopper (Acrida cinerea (Thunberg)) were investigated. The adult insect mainly contained: crude protein (CP) 654.2 g kg(-1); fat 83.0 g kg(-1) and chitin 87.3 g kg(-1) on dry matter basis. The content of amino acids compared well with fish meal; the methionine, cystine and lysine concentrations in the grasshopper meal were 17.0, 6.9 and 37.9 g kg(-1) on dry matter basis. The coefficient of total tract true amino acid digestibility of methionine, cystine, and lysine in the grasshopper meal were 0.97, 0.84 and 0.95 determined in cecectomized roosters, respectively. The nitrogen-corrected true metabolizable energy (TMEn) of the grasshopper meal was 11.34 MJ/kg determined in cecectomized roosters. When maize-insect-soybean meal diets were formulated on an equal CP and TMEn basis, up to 150 g kg(-1) grasshopper meal could replace control diet without any adverse affects on broiler weight gain, feed intake, or gain:feed ratio from 8 to 20 days posthatching. The fatty acid analysis showed polyunsaturated fatty acids of the grasshopper meal to be present in high quantities, and the total content of oleic, linoleic and linolenic acids was 0.8449 of total fatty acids. The results indicated that the insect could be an acceptable raw material for feed and food. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.