The effect of defatted Hermetia illucens meal on growth performance and intestinal enzymes of gilthead seabream

Shortages in fish meal and oil supply resulted in rising prices and in their substitution in formulated diets with nonoptimal effects on growth and animal health. Insects protein, especially black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens; HI) meal has recently investigated due to the valuable nutritional properties. This study evaluated growth performance and intestinal enzymes activities of seabream fed for four months with a control and three experimental diets containing increasing levels of HI meal. Fifteen fish per each treatment were processed at the end of the trial. Statistical evaluations indicated that the dietary inclusion of defatted HI meal in seabream fed up to 18.4% of inclusion level did not influenced any of the growth performance traits considered. On the other hand, HI inclusion level of 27.6% worsened the following parameters: specific growth rate, feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio, while as far as the somatic indexes are concerned, fish fed the control and 18.5% HI diets showed the lowest hepatosomatic index values (1.31 and 1.30, respectively).