Yellow Catfish- Another Demonstration of Feed Replacement with Black Soldier Fly Larvae

Hello Everyone- 
I have been a bit slow with new posts; however, I am truly dependent on those conducting research. So I encourage all of you researchers to publish, publish, publish on the black soldier fly! The blog is dependent on you (small amount of joking with you).

The article to be reviewed today is hot off the press. I do not believe I have reviewed this one before as it is new. If I have - my apologies... but maybe this is an indication the study is so important a secondary review of it is necessary.   :) 

Xiao, X., P. Jin, L. Zheng, M. Cai, Z. Yu, J. Yu, and J. Zhang. Effects of black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae meal protein as a fishmeal replacement on the growth and immune index of yellow catfish (Pelteobagrus fulvidraco). Aquaculture Research: n/a-n/a.

This study, like many others, used black soldier fly larvae as a feed replacement for fish. In this case, yellow catfish were used as the model.

Here are some basic facts from the study design:

• 65 day trial
• They used feed rations with various levels of BSFL inclusion (0%, 13%, 25%, 37%, 48%, 68%, 85% and 100%)
• Measured survivorship and performance (e.g., immune system and weight gain)

What did they find?

• Weight gain rate increased by 21.7%
• Immune indexes (e.g. serum lysozyme activity increased by 6.8%) when using diet with 48%  BSFL meal protein replacement
• 25% replacement was the best (e.g., weight gain rate increased by 29.1%) and immune indexes (e.g. serum lysozyme activity increased by 31.9%)
• 25% replacement had the lowest feed conversion ratio (0.9) among all diets tested.
• No significant differences in survival rate, body indexes or composition were determined among all treatments. 

So, I conclude from this study, that more evidence has been generated for the use of BSFL as a feed replacement for the aquaculture industry- in this case, yellow catfish.

Trivia Fact: Yellow Catfish can reach 50 pounds  (22 kilograms)! That is a very large fish IMO. 
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