Effects of DL-methionine and liquid methionine hydroxy analogue in black soldier fly larvae production
In this trial, supplementation of DL-methionine (DL-Met) improved black soldier fly larvae biomass gain and nitrogen retention whereas MHA-FA supplementation was ineffective. Nitrogen losses were significantly reduced by graded supplementation of DL-Met and MHA-FA. In fact, bioefficacy of MHA-FA relative to DL-Met was only 43%. DL-Met is more effective than MHA-FA as feed supplement to improve the black soldier fly larvae production system.
While there is still much to learn about the optimization of black soldier fly larvae nutrition, it becomes clear with this trial that the 65% bioefficacy concept is successfully applicable for these animals as well.
Head of R&D, ENORM Biofactory
The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of incremental supplementation of either DL-Met or MHA-FA on performance and nutrient utilization of black soldier fly larvae.
Location: ENORM Biofactory A/S, Flemming, Denmark
Project team leaders: Dr. Andreas Lemme, Toke Munk Schou, Nastasia Krog Noer
| Animals | Seed larvae/tray (16.8±0.66g dry matter (DM) (±standard error of the mean, SEM)), DM content ~37.5%; 6 trays/treatment |
| Design | Simultaneous dose response trial |
| Housing | 800 mm x 600 mm x 15 mm trays |
| Diets | Based on brewery by-products, 18.3% crude protein (CP) in DM 1) Negative control: Basal, unsupplemented substrate (BS); 0.66% Met+Cys in DM 2) Treatment 2a,b,c: BS + 0.20, 0.40, or 0.60% DL-Met 3) Treatment 3a,b,c: BS + 0.31, 0.62, or 0.92% MHA-FA (154% of DL-Met, applied 65% bioefficacy) |
| Feeding | 12.35 kg substrate/tray (2.93 kg DM); ad libitum for 20 days |
| Parameters | Biomass gain; mass balance calculations: amino acid & nitrogen retention, |
| Duration | 20 days |
Trial results
- DL-methionine (DL-Met) supplementation increased biomass gain numerically by up to 7.4%, whereas supplementation of MHA-FA had no impact on biomass gain (Figure 1).
- Supplementation of 0.60% DL-Met significantly (<0.05) increased amino acid retention from substrate by 5 %-points, while this effect was less pronounced with MHA-FA supplementation (Figure 2).
- Nitrogen utilization in % of substrate was significantly improved with 0.60% DL-Met, but supplementation of MHA-FA had no effect (Figure 3).
- Nitrogen losses, which are basically ammonia losses, were significantly (p<0.05; Figure 4) and linearly (Figure 5) reduced with graded product supplementation. MHA-FA was 43% as effective as DL-Met.
