The using possibilities of defatted yellow mealworm meal instead of fishmeal in quail diets

The study investigated the effects of replacing of defatted meal worm larvae meal at different levels instead of fish meal in diet on performance, serum biochemistry and slaughtering parameters and nutrient composition of meat of quails. In the research, a total of 600 day-old unsexed Japanese quail chicks that included 5 groups with 4 replicates of 20 chicks each were used. The diets were formulated with defatted meal worm larvae meal by replacing 0 (FM0+WM100), 25 (WM25+FM75), 50 (WM50+FM50), 75 (WM75+FM25) and 100 (WM100+FM0) % of fish meal. The research results, the WM25 diet increased final body weight (BW) and body weight gain (BWG) at the period of 0-5 weeks of quails compared to those of quails fed the WM75+FM25 and WM100+FM0 diets, decreased feed intake (FI) and improved feed conversion ratio (FCR) of quails compared to those of quails the other diets (P<0.05). Feeding the FM100 and WM25+FM75 diets increased the hot and cold carcass yields of quails compared to those of quails fed the other diets, while the WM100+FM0 diet enhanced the relative weight of small intestine of quail compared to the FM and WM25 diets (P<0.05). The FM diet increased serum albumin:globulin ratio of quail compared the diets supplemented with WM at all levels (P<0.05). The best protein efficiency ratio and energy efficiency ratio were obtained by the WM25 and WM50+FM50 diets although the best European efficiency factor was obtained by the WM25+FM75 diet (P<0.05). Morever, feeding 25WM+FM75 diets reduced feed cost compared to the other diets (P<0.001). As a result, replacing with defatted meal worm larvae meal at the 25 and 50 % levels instead of fish meal in diet can give a positive result in terms of growth performance, serum albumin:globulin ratio, cholesterol and triglyceride levels, protein- and energy- efficiency ratio and European efficiency factor of quails.