Nutritional value of earthworms and grasshoppers as poultry feed.

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Using 72 one-week-old male White Leghorn chicks, an attempt was made to study whether or not earthworms and grasshoppers can replace fish meal in chick diets.Earthworms had protein content as high as and amino acid content similar to fishmeal except the content of methionine, glycine, valine and proline. Crude protein of grasshoppers was much higher than that of fish meal but its amino acid content was lower. The digestibility and feeding experiment showed that earthworms can be practically used for poultry feed as a dietary protein source. Although it is suspected that the protein would be further improved by supplementing methionine. The TDN level and the ME level of lyophilized earthworms were 81.9% and 3.76kcal/g, respectively. There were little differences in weight of organs (liver, kidney, muscle, spleen and pancreas) among the chicks fed earthwrms, grasshoppers and fish meal.
日本家禽学会の論文