Evaluation of Differently Processed Maggot (Musca domestica) Meal as a Replacement for Fishmeal in Broiler Diets

The high cost of imported fishmeal as animal protein source is one of the limiting factors in raising broiler chickens particularly in Nigeria. Maggots are housefly larvae that are rich in protein which could be used as alternative to fishmeal in broiler production. This study assessed differently processed Maggot Meal (MM) as replacement for fishmeal in broilers diet in a completely randomized design. A total of 144 day old Arbor Acre broilers were randomly divided into 4 treatments. Each treatment (of 36 birds) was replicated thrice of 12 birds per replicate. Maggots were produced using blood and wheat offal as substrates in ratio 4:1 using either mango or intestinal offal as flies attractant. The maggots matured within 5days and harvested. The maggots were processed by sun-drying, oven drying and roasting. Four experimental diets were formulated for the study. A corn-soybean meal based diet that contained imported fishmeal was denoted as control. Sun dried MM, oven dried MM and roasted MM replaced imported fishmeal wholly denoting T1, T2 and T3, respectively. Data were collected on maggot yield, growth performance, nutrient digestibility and serum enzymes of experimental birds. Data collected were analyzed using One-Way Analysis of Variance. The results showed that the maggots yield from the substrates and intestinal offal as fly attractant produced more maggots than using mango as flies attractant. The highest crude protein (CP) was observed in roasted MM (43.75%). Broiler chickens fed roasted MM had final body weight comparable (P > 0.050) to the control. Broiler chickens fed roasted maggot meal had the highest (P = 0.011) CP digestibility (70.68%). Serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) was significantly (P = 0.002) elevated for broiler chickens fed sun dried and oven dried maggot meals. In conclusion, processing maggots by roasting was the best for enhanced crude protein digestibility without any deleterious effect on serum enzymes.