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096-2022

Livestock Research for Rural Development, Volume 34, Number 8, August 2022 ISSN 0121-3784

Contents
Papers:
65. Reproductive and milk yield performance of indigenous and crossbred dairy cattle breeds in
Ghana as influenced by non-genetic factors; J K Hagan, B A Hagan and S A Ofori

66. Production of honey, pot-pollen and propolis from Indonesian stingless bee Tetragonula
laeviceps and the physicochemical properties of honey: A review; Agussalim and Ali Agus

67. Effects of dry season supplementation of Calliandra calothyrsus leaf-meal mixed with
maize-bran on dairy cattle milk production in the West Usambara Highlands, Tanzania;
David D Maleko, George M Msalya and Kelvin M Mtei

68. Impacts of grazing, restoration by planting on the pastoral potential, floristic richness and
diversity of a the southwestern steppe of Naâma (Algeria), in the context of climate change;
Boukerker Hassen, Hecini Lynda, Salemkour Nora, Boumedjane Mouna Rachida, Kherifi
Wahida, Doghbage Abdelghafour, Belhouadjeb Fathi Abdellatif, Bekiri Fadia, Boultif
Meriem and Diab Nacima

69. Effect of cricket meal substituted soybean meal in the diet of white-eared Junglefowl (Gallus
gallus) on feed intake and weight gain; Nguyen Thiet, Nguyen Trong Ngu and Le Thanh
Phuong

70. Feeding coconut meal improves milk production and the quality of Etawah Grade goats; A R
S Asih, K G Wiryawan and L Doloksaribu

71. Using waste mineral water from RO column to culture Chlorella vulgaris algae biomass;
Trinh Thi Lan, Nguyen Thi Thuy Hang, Nguyen Tran Thien Khanh, Nguyen Thi Bich Hanh,
Nguyen Hieu Nhan, Nguyen Thi Bao Thoa, Nguyen Ngoc Phuong Trang and Nguyen Huu
Yen Nhi

72. Impact of graded levels of cassava peels meal as a replacement for maize on growth
performance and nutrient digestibility in weaner rabbits; Udeh F U, Ezenwosu C and
Onyimonyi A E

73. Performance of nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) with giant freshwater prawns
(Macrobrachium rosenbergii) fed diets with duckweed (Lemna minor) and fish waste meal as
replacement for conventional protein sources; Arnold Ebuka Irabor, Lydia Mosunmola
Adeleke, Hardin Jn Pierre and Francis Oster Nwachi

74. Effect of ammonification with different levels of urea on conservation and chemical
components of the fresh tuber of sweet potato (Ipomoea batata L.); M H Ruiloba and C Solís
(in spanish)
 096-2022
Livestock Research for Rural Development 34 (8) 2022 LRRD Search LRRD Misssion Guide for preparation of papers LRRD Newsletter Citation of this paper

Effect of cricket meal substituted soybean meal in the diet of white-eared Junglefowl (Gallus
gallus) on feed intake and weight gain
Nguyen Thiet, Nguyen Trong Ngu1 and Le Thanh Phuong2
College of Rural Development, Can Tho University, Can Tho City, Vietnam
[email protected]

1 College of Agriculture, Can Tho University, Can Tho City, Vietnam

2 Vietswan Poultry Production Joint Stock Company, Binh Duong Province, Vietnam

Abstract
This experiment aimed to evaluate the effect of cricket meal substituted soybean meal in the diet of white-eared Junglefowl (Gallus gallus) on feed
intake and weight gain. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design with 3 treatments and 4 replicates (4 white-eared Junglefowl
per replication). The treatments consisted of control: diet without cricket meal (control); treatment 1: a diet containing 3% cricket meal (3CM) to
substitute 12.05% of soybean meal; treatment 2: a diet containing 6% cricket meal (6CM) to substitute 26.93% of soybean meal. The results from the
experiment showed that birds consumed up to 6% cricket meal in the diets without the negative impacts on dry matter intake (DMI), body weight,
weight gain, and feed conversion rate (FCR) as compared to the control (p>0.05). However, birds supplemented with 3% cricket meal improved weight
gain and decreased FCR compared to control (p <0.05). Additionally, Junglefowl fed with 3% cricket meal were the best choices for economic return. It

can be concluded that cricket meal was considered as a protein resource that can partly replace soybean meal in the diet of white-eared Junglefowl.

Key words: broiler, cricket meal, Junglefowl, production

Introduction
Recently, researchers reported that insects have been recommended as alternative protein sources in animal feed with high crude protein (CP) levels and
good quality amino acid profiles (Wang et al 2005; Sanchez-Muros et al 2014). Previous studies suggested that insect meal such as black soldier fly
larvae, house fly maggots, mealworm, grasshoppers, crickets, and silkworm meals can be partly replaced fish meal (FM) or soybean meal (SBM). Insect
meal has comparable CP and fat contents to FM and SBM (Makkar et al 2014) and does not adverse effects on poultry production (Wang et al 2005;
Permatahati et al 2019; Moula and Detilleux, 2019). In Vietnam, white-eared Junglefowl have been popular recently, particularly in remote areas, due to
good quality meat and low feed cost compared to commercial broilers. In addition, the farmers traditionally fed their Junglefowl with cereal grains,
grasshopper, earthworms, and particularly cricket. Because cricket are easy to produce, have a rapid growth rate, a short reproductive cycle, and a high
feed conversion rate. However, little information is available regarding the usage of cricket meal in the diets of Junglefowl.

Thus, the present experiment aimed to determine the effect of cricket meal substituted soybean meal in the diet of white-eared Junglefowl on feed intake
and weight gain. A shift from conventional protein sources such as FM and SBM towards cricket meal might result in more efficient use of natural
resources and lower emissions of greenhouse gases. In addition, the results from this study would contribute to sustainable livestock development and
environmental protection.

Materials and methods

Preparation of cricket meal

Crickets obtained from cricket farm at College of Rural Development, Can Tho University in Phung Hiep district of Hau Giang province, Vietnam.
After collecting from the farm, the crickets were stored in a freezer for a day. Then they were thawed, clean with fresh water, and dried in an oven at
60oC for two days. The dried crickets were ground using a blender to obtain the cricket meal and then included in the experimental diets.

Birds and housing

The experiment was conducted at the Experimental farm of the College of Rural Development, Can Tho University in Phung Hiep district of Hau Giang
province. The chickens were cared for and handled following the Animal Husbandry Law of Vietnam (32/2018/QH14). All birds were vaccinated before
starting the experiment and housed in confinement houses with a density of 02 birds/m2.

Experimental design and data collection

The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design with 3 treatments, 4 replicates (4 white-eared junglefowl per replication). The
experiment used 48 white-eared junglefowl of mixed sex for 6 weeks (from 5th to 11th week of age, photo 1), consisting of one week for the adaptation

period and five weeks for data collection. The treatments consisted of the control group: diet without cricket meal (control); treatment 1: a diet
containing 3% cricket meal (3CM) to substitute 12.05% of soybean meal and treatment 2: a diet containing 6% cricket meal (6CM) to substitute 26.93%
of soybean meal. The chemical compositions of cricket meal are shown in Table 1 and the ingredients and chemical compositions of experimental
rations are presented in Table 2. The birds were fed twice daily at 08:00 and 14:00 h and had free access to water. At the beginning and end of the trial,
all birds from each replication were weighed before feeding in the morning.

Feed offered and refusals were recorded daily in the morning starting from day 1st to 35th of the experiment. Feed and refusal samples were collected
once a week and were divided into two parts: one half was immediately dried in the oven at 105°C until its weight remained constant to determine the
dry matter, and the remaining samples were kept frozen at -20°C until chemical analysis. All feed samples were thawed and mixed thoroughly at the end
of the experiment, and subsamples were dried at 65°C for approximately 12 hours for CP and CF analysis according to AOAC (1990).
 Photo 1.
White-eared junglefowl at 11 weeks of age

Table 1. Chemical composition of cricket meal (On DM basis except for DM

which is on air-dry basis)
DM CP CF EE Ash
Cricket meal 94.90 50.91 5.84 10.88 3.39

Table 2. Ingredients and chemical composition of experimental rations

Ingredients Control 3CM 6CM
Soybean meal 29.00 25.50 21.19
Cricket meal 0.00 3.00 6.00
Corn meal 52.78 54.41 56.54
Rice bran 16.30 15.20 13.70
CaCO3 1.50 1.50 1.50
Salt 0.23 0.23 0.23
L-Lysine 0.10 0.08 0.08
DL-Methionine 0.09 0.08 0.05
Total 100 100 100
Price (VND/kg) 7.205 6.898 6.588
Chemical composition (%)
DM 89.04 89.05 89.04
CP 19.02 19.05 19.02
CF 4.05 3.92 3.77
Ca* 0.83 0.83 0.83
P* 0.51 0.50 0.48
Lysine* 1.16 1.16 1.18
Methionine* 0.42 0.44 0.43
ME (Kcal/kg)* 3095 3092 3091
*: calculated composition

Statistical analysis
The data are presented as the mean ± SEM. All data were analyzed with one-way ANOVA. The significance of pairwise comparisons was determined by
Tukey posttest. Significance was declared at p<0.05.

Results and discussion

The DMI in this experiment did not differ among treatments (Table 3, p>0.05). Feed intake is one of the indicators to evaluate the palatability of feed
ingredients. This study indicated that cricket meal was proper to be consumed by Junglefowl because the DMI from cricket meal groups was similar to
the control group. These findings were consistent with prior research in which insects had no measurable impact on feed intake (Onsongo et al 2018;
Moula and Detilleux, 2019). Wang et al. (2005) found that Arbor Acres broiler consumed field cricket meals up to 15% without affecting DMI. In
addition, Permatahati et al. (2019) reported that DMI from female Japanese quail was not affected by female field cricket supplementation by up to 8%.
But, Nginya et al. (2019) found that feed intake from indigenous chickens decreased with the diet containing high levels (above 5%) of grasshopper
meal. Lower DMI may be caused by a high fat content or chitin level in insect meal, followed by a decrease in nutrient digestibility (Nginya et al 2019;
Moula and Detilleux, 2019). The different responses to insect supplementation on DMI between the present experiment and previous studies may differ
in the levels of insect meal in diet, type of insects and poultry species.

The result the current study showed that the inclusion of 3% cricket meal in the diet of Junglefowl has improved weight gain, and lower in FCR
compared to control (Table 3, p<0.05). Higher weight gain and lower FCR may be due to the improvement of CP digestibility at a low level of insect
meal in the diet of poultry, as reported by Nginya et al. (2019). However, Junglefowl fed with 6% cricket meal was similar weight gain and FCR
compared to control (Table 3, p>0.05). In addition, the results showed that weight gain was a negative relationship (Figure 1; R2 = 1), and FCR was a
positive relationship (Figure 2; R2 = 1) when RM supplementation increased. Moula and Detilleux (2019) suggested that increasing rates of insect
inclusion are associated with a decrease in weight gain of birds, particularly for rates of 10% and more, and the same tendency in the present work
(Figure 1; R2 = 1). This is due to the imbalance of nutrient composition or high level of chitin is less digestible. Another factor is the influence of insect
meal on the villi's morphology. According to certain research, high levels of black soldier fly larvae or mealworm decreased the height of intestinal villi
(Biasato et al 2018a; Moniello et al 2019) or the total luminal villus absorptive area (Biasato et al 2018b). Some research found that feeding field cricket
meal to birds did not influence on weight gain or FCR in Arbor Acres broilers (Wang et al 2005) or female Japanese quail (Permatahati et al 2019).

The current study showed that the cost of 1 kg weight gain of Junglefowl from 3CM and 6CM groups was cheaper than that compared to control group
from 24.2% (6CM) to 31.34% (3CM) (Table 3). The findings of this study's cost of production are consistent with those of Adeniji (2007) and Bombata
& Balogun (1997). Similarly, Hatab et al (2018) discovered that replacing meat and bone meal with 5% or 10% insect meal in Japanese quail diets
increased the economic benefit from 9% to 39% compared to the control group.
 Table 3.
Effect of cricket meal supplementation in the diet of white-eared Junglefowl on feed intake,
weight gain, and FCR
Items Control 3CM 6CM SE p
DMI (g/head/day) 28.4 28.8 28.0 0.70 0.73
Initial BW (g/head) 146 137 141 4.79 0.50
Final BW (g/head) 292 342 316 21.3 0.30
Weight gain (g/head/day) 4.18b 5.85a 4.99ab 0.24 0.01
FCR 7.05a 5.05b 5.80ab 0.42 0.02
Cost (VND/kg gain) 50,802 34,834 38,244 4,114 0.052
Compared to control (%) 0 31.43 24.72
a,b:
Mean values with different superscripts within the same row are different at p<0.05
Control: diet
without cricket meal; 3CM: diet containing 3% cricket meal; 6CM: diet containing 6% cricket meal

Figure 1.
Curvilinear trend in weight gain (g/head/day) as cricket meal substituted Figure 2.
Curvilinear trend in feed conversion rate as cricket meal substituted
soybean meal in the diet of white-eared Junglefowl soybean meal in the diet of white-eared Junglefowl

Conclusions
Cricket meal can replace up to 26.93% of SBM or 6% cricket meal in diets without affecting DMI, body weight, weight gain and FCR of
Junglefowl. However, Junglefowl fed a diet with 3% cricket meal was the best choice in terms of economic return.

Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank the manager of the Experimental farm at College of Rural Development, Can Tho university for supplying all the
experiment materials and sincere gratitude thanks to Mr. Khang and Ms. Tram for taking care of the experiment.

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