363. Effects of Replacing Soybean Meal with Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia Illucens) Larvae Meal on Growth Performance, Feed Efficiency and Carcass Traits of Broiler Chickens.

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute (BLRI), Savar, Bangladesh to evaluate the effects of replacing soybean meal with dried Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL) meal on growth performance, feed intake, feed conversion ratio (FCR), and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens. A total of 408 day-old broiler chicks were randomly allocated to six dietary treatments following a completely randomized design with four replicates of 17 birds each. The treatments included a control diet (T0) and diets where soybean meal was replaced with BSFL meal at 12.5% (T1), 25% (T2), 50% (T3), 75% (T4), and 100% (T5). Birds were reared under standard management practices with ad libitum access to feed and water. All data were subjected to one-way ANOVA using R-Studio (version 2025.05.01). Dietary treatments significantly affected body weight from the second week onward (P < 0.05). At the end of the trial, the highest final body weight was observed in T2 (1462.9 g), which was statistically comparable with T0, T1, and T3, while birds receiving complete replacement (T5) had significantly lower body weight (1126.6 g). Feed intake differed significantly during the second and fourth weeks (P < 0.05) but remained similar among treatments in other weeks. Feed conversion ratio was significantly influenced during the first, third, fourth, and fifth weeks (P < 0.05), with poorer efficiency observed in T5. Carcass evaluation revealed significant effects of dietary treatments on live weight, carcass weight, thigh weight, drumstick weight, wing weight, wing length, shank length, and total intestinal length (P < 0.05). However, dressing percentage, head weight, neck length, neck weight, shank weight, and abdominal fat were not significantly affected (P > 0.05). Birds receiving moderate inclusion levels of BSFL meal (12.5–50%) exhibited better carcass traits including meat quality parameters comparable to the control group, whereas complete replacement resulted in reduced carcass yield. The findings indicate that dried BSFL meal can partially replace soybean meal in broiler diets without compromising growth performance and carcass characteristics. However, full replacement may negatively affect production efficiency, suggesting that moderate inclusion levels are optimal for sustainable broiler feeding strategies.