Publicação
Growth performance, bioconversion efficiency, and nutritional quality of yellow mealworm larvae reared on formulated diets based on local agro-industrial by-products
| datacite.subject.fos | Ciências Agrárias::Ciências Veterinárias | |
| datacite.subject.sdg | 12:Produção e Consumo Sustentáveis | |
| dc.contributor.author | Loiotine, Z. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Oddon, S. Bellezza | |
| dc.contributor.author | Resconi, A. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Murta, Daniel | |
| dc.contributor.author | Ribeiro, T. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Biasato, I. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Gasco, L. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-03T13:39:11Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-03T13:39:11Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2026-06 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Studies on yellow mealworm (YM, Tenebrio molitor) have mainly used feeding substrates with heterogeneous nutritional composition. In this study, three multi-ingredient agro-industrial diets (YM1, YM2, YM3), formulated to be nutritionally comparable in terms of CP (19.0–19.6% DM), ether extract (EE 3.0–3.2% DM), and gross energy (17.7–18.5 MJ/Kg DM), were tested to evaluate their effects on larval growth, bioconversion, chemical composition, and economic affordability. Diet YM1 included wheat middlings, wafer dough cooked, dry distillery stillage, coffee silvery film, breading waste and feed waste. Diet YM2 was based on feed waste and breading waste, with minor inclusions of wafer dough cooked and sweet preparation, whereas YM3 consisted of feed waste, breading waste and rice by-products (rice husk, chaff and bran). Wheat bran (WB; CP 20.5%, EE 4.2%, gross energy 18.6 MJ/kg, DM) served as environmental control. Diet costs (€/ton) calculated from by-product inclusion level and market price were 87.80 (YM1), 83.30 (YM2), and 95.50 (YM3), when compared to €250.00/tonne for WB. Four-week-old YM larvae (10 000/tray) were reared on 3 kg of diet per replicate and sampled weekly until growth differences between consecutive samplings were < 50% (week 9 of age, 35 days). Agar (25 g/L) was supplied three times weekly. At the end of the larval growth and biomass, development time, survival, growth rate (GR, mg/day), specific growth rate (SGR, %/day), feed conversion ratio, efficiency of conversion of ingested food (%), feed intake and water intake (%) were recorded. Statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS (v.20.0; P < 0.05). Rearing tray was the experimental unit with four replicates per treatment. A one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post-hoc test was applied for all the tested parameters. At 9 weeks of age, larvae fed YM2 and YM3 showed significantly higher final average weight (139 mg for both YM diets), GR (3.90–3.91 mg), and SGR (11.90% for both) than those fed YM1 (118 mg; 3.31 mg–11.40%, respectively; P < 0.001), with no differences between YM2 and YM3 (P > 0.05). Larval composition varied across treatments (P < 0.05), with higher DM and EE in YM1 (36.50−37.90%, respectively) than YM3 (35.40–35.0%), while YM2 showed no significant differences (36.0–37.3%). Ash content was higher in YM3 (4.02%) than in YM1 and YM2 (3.34–3.45%; P < 0.05). In conclusion, nutritionally comparable multi-ingredient agro-industrial diets supported YM growth and bioconversion, while reducing feed costs when compared to the WB diet. | eng |
| dc.identifier.citation | Z. Loiotine, S. Bellezza Oddon, A. Resconi, D. Murta, T. Ribeiro, I. Biasato, L. Gasco, Growth performance, bioconversion efficiency, and nutritional quality of yellow mealworm larvae reared on formulated diets based on local agro-industrial by-products, animal, Volume 20, Issue 6, 2026, 101853, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.animal.2026.101853 | |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.1016/j.animal.2026.101853 | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1751-7311 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/63720 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.peerreviewed | yes | |
| dc.publisher | Elsevier | |
| dc.relation.hasversion | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.animal.2026.101853 | |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ | |
| dc.subject | Chemical composition | |
| dc.subject | Feed cost | |
| dc.subject | Iso-nutrient | |
| dc.subject | Tenebrio molitor | |
| dc.subject | Waste valorisation | |
| dc.title | Growth performance, bioconversion efficiency, and nutritional quality of yellow mealworm larvae reared on formulated diets based on local agro-industrial by-products | eng |
| dc.type | contribution to journal | |
| dspace.entity.type | Publication | |
| oaire.citation.issue | 6 | |
| oaire.citation.startPage | 101853 | |
| oaire.citation.title | Animal | |
| oaire.citation.volume | 20 | |
| oaire.version | http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85 |