Citation of this paper

Effect of replacing fish meal with house cricket (Acheta domesticus) meal in the diet of growing rabbits on feed intake and weight gain

Bui Phan Thu Hang^1,2, Le Ro Pin³, Nguyen Van Cuong⁴ and Vo Lam^1,2

¹ Department of Animal Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, An Giang University
bpthang.agu@gmail.com
² Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
³ An Giang Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sub-Department
⁴ An Giang Agricultural Extension Center

Abstract

Thirty male weaned crossbred rabbits (New Zealand White x local female), at 8 weeks of age and with initial live weight of 816 ± 83 g (Mean ± SD) were housed in individual cages to identify the fish meal replacement by cricket meal for growing rabbits. The protein content of the fish meal in the control diet was substituted by 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% by cricket meal.

The results showed that the nutrients intake of all the treatments was similar to each other and the control. The cricket meal affected positively on growth performance and feed conversion. Growth rate was improved from 10-18% when diets had more 50% fish meal replacement by cricket meal. The cricket meal could substitute fish meal by 100% with highest growth rate and lowest feed conversion. Therefore, cricket meal is a promising alternative to unsustainable fish meal in growing rabbit diets.

Key words: cricket meal, fish meal replacement, rabbit

Introduction

Fish meal is predominating in animal feed formulation because it is high nutritive value and safe protein content (Samples 2014; Hicks et al 2019). According to Kowalska et al (2021), wild fish population is damaged by the increasing fish meal usage. The utilization of fish meal for animal feed in the long term is unsustainable (Turchini et al 2019). Crickets is being farmed commonly with high biomass production (Vo Lam et al 2022; Bui Phan Thu Hang et al 2020 and 2022). Cricket meal contains high levels of crude protein (50-66%) on a DM basis (Nguyen Thiet et al 2022; Vo lam et al 2022). Cricket meal have been examined for fish meal substitute of the aquafeed, poultry, pig (Wang et al 2022; Matin et al 2021; Nguyen Thiet et al 2022; Boontiam et al 2022). Rabbit production have been developed in the recently years after the dangerous diseases of pigs and poultry occurred in Vietnam. Studies on utilisation local feed resources for crossbred rabbits to increase their growth rate, sustainable and protecting the environment (Bui Phan Thu Hang et al 2011; Nguyen Huu Tam et al 2013; Bui Phan Thu Hang et al 2013; Nguyen Xuan Trach et al 2015). However, little research results are available relate to the usage of house cricket meal in the diets of rabbits.

Therefore, this experiment was studied to evaluate the effect of replacing fish meal with house cricket (Acheta domesticus) meal in the diet of growing rabbits on feed intake and weight gain.

Materials and methods

Location and experimental design

The study was conducted on in a private farm in Thoai Son district, Long Xuyen city, An Giang province. Thirty male weaned crossbred rabbits (New Zealand White x local female), at 8 weeks of age and with initial live weight of 816 ± 83 g (Mean ± SD) were housed in individual cages. The rabbits were fed diets composed of homemade concentrate pellet (CP=18.2%) and water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica) given ad libitum, in which fish meal was replaced with cricket meal at 0, 25, 50, 75, or 100% based as protein of fish meal (Table 1). The experiment was a complete randomized design with 6 replications. The trial lasted for 8 weeks.

Table 1. Percent composition of ingredients and chemical composition of homemade pellets fed rabbits
Items	Control	25CM	50CM	75CM	100CM

Broken rice	32	32	32	32	32
Rice bran	17	17	17	17	17
Corn meal	28	28	28	28	28
Soybean meal	10	10	10	10	10
Fish meal	12	9	6	3	0
Cricket meal	0	3.1	6.2	9.3	12.3
Premix mineral	1	0.9	0.8	0.7	0.7
Chemical composition (%)
DM	88.4	88.4	88.3	88.3	88.4
CP	18.2	18.2	18.2	18.2	18.2
CF	3.29	3.5	3.80	4.05	4.30
OM	92.4	93.0	93.7	94.3	95.0

Feeds, animals and management

The weaned New Zealand crossbred rabbits were de-wormed with Ivermectin, vaccinated against Hemorrhagic disease. They were provided homemade pellet in feeders (4% live weight) and water spinach forages were hung in bunches above the feed trough with 50% of the daily supply offered at 08.00h and the remainder at 14.00h. Feeds offered and refusals were recorded daily in the morning to determine the feed intake. Live weight change was recorded every week. The diets were adjusted weekly following their body weights. Fresh water was supplied ad libitum.

Chemical analysis

Samples of feeds offered and refused were analysed for DM, CP and ash according to AOAC (1990).

Statistical analysis

The data from the experiment were subjected to analysis of variance using the General Linear Model (GLM) procedure of Minitab Software Release version 17 (2013). Sources of variation were treatments and error.

Results and discussion

Fish meal and cricket meal composition

Fish meal was slightly higher crude protein content than in cricket meal; However, the DM, CF and OM in cricket meal was richer than in fish meal (Table 2).

Table 2. Mean values for chemical composition of cricket meal, %
Item	DM, %	% of Dry matter
Item	DM, %	CP	CF	EE	OM

Cricket meal	93.3	56.6	5.71	9.75	95.0
Fish meal	88.6	58.2	2.32	6.38	76.6

Feed intake, live weight gain and feed conversion

Nutrients intake were unchanged (p>0.05) with the increased levels of fish meal replacing with cricket meal in the diet (Table 3).

Table 3. Feed intake of rabbits fed various cricket meal replacing in the diet, g/rabbit/day
Items	Control	25CM	50CM	75CM	100CM	SEM	p

Dry matter
Pellets	48.7	52.8	55.1	52.5	50.4	2.32	0.39
Water spinach	12.5	11.8	13.5	12.0	11.4	0.54	0.09
Total	61.2	64.6	68.6	64.5	61.8	2.40	0.24
Organic matter	56.9	60.5	64.5	61.0	58.8	2.27	0.22
Crude protein	11.3	11.9	12.6	11.9	11.4	0.44	0.25

Weight gain showed the rabbits fed the cricket meal grew faster (p=0.01). When 25% fish meal was replaced with cricket meal, the average daily gain (ADG) was not affected. However, ADG and feed conversion were improved when the rabbits were offered more than 50% replacement level of fish meal with cricket meal. The highest growth rate and lowest feed conversion in rabbits provided 100% replacing fish meal with cricket meal (Table 4, Figure 1 and 2). The balanced amino acid content in cricket meal support faster rabbit growth rate and efficiency of utilisation of diets. Buarat et al (2022) reported that cricket meal increased in vitro DM degradability.

Table 4. Growth rate and FCR of rabbits fed various cricket meal replacing in the diet
Items	Control	25CM	50CM	75CM	100CM	SEM	p

Initial BW, g/rabbit	782	812	879	833	773	32.3	0.17
Final BW, g/rabbit	2071^b	2098^b	2329^a	2253^ab	2290^ab	55.2	<0.01
Weight gain, g/rabbit/day	23.0^b	23.0^b	25.9^ab	25.4^ab	27.1^a	0.90	0.01
DM feed conversion	2.67^ab	2.82^a	2.65^ab	2.56^ab	2.30^b	0.12	0.05
^ab Means values within rows with different superscripts are different at P<0.05


Figure 1. Curvilinear trend in weight gain (g/rabbit/day) as cricket meal replaced fish meal in the diet of growing rabbits	Figure 2. Curvilinear trend in DM feed conversion as cricket meal replaced fish meal in the diet of growing rabbits

Conclusions

Nutrients intakes were unchanged with fish meal replacement by cricket meal in the diet.
The cricket meal affected positively on growth performance and feed conversion. Growth rate was improved from 10-18% when diets had more 50% fish meal replacement by cricket meal. Therefore, cricket meal is a promising alternative to unsustainable fish meal in growing rabbit diets.

Acknowledgment

The authors are grateful for the infrastructure support for this research from a smallholder rabbit farm in Thoai Son district, Long Xuyen city, An Giang province.

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