EFFECTS OF BLACK SOLDIER FLY (Hermetia illucens) MEAL IN STURGEON (Acipenser baerii) JUVENILES FEEDS: PRELIMINARY RESULTS

Laura Gasco*, Achille Schiavone, Tommaso Mei, Marco Meneguz, Marta Gariglio, Christian Caimi, Andrea Dama, Manuela Renna, Sihem Dabbou, Enrico Bressan, Marco Montagnani, Alberto Prato, Alessio Bonaldo, Marino Prearo, Francesco Gai.

Department of Agricultural, Forest, and Food Sciences. University of Turin. Italy
laura.gasco@unito.it

Recent investigations have highlighted that insect-based protein meals can be used as a more sustainable alternative to conventional protein (fish or plant protein meals) used so far in aquaculture (Henry et al., 2015; Gasco et al., 2016). Hermetia illucens (HI) is a good candidate due to its valuable nutritional properties. The aim of this research was to investigate the effects of the inclusion of a defatted HI larvae meal in sturgeon feeds on performances, somatic indexes, and condition factor.

Three hundred fifty two A. baerii of about 24g were weighed and allocated to 16 fiberglass tanks. Four diets were formulated (Table 1). Diets were isonitrogenous and isoenergetic. Trial lasted 118 days.

At the end of the trail weight gain (WG), feeding rate (FR), feed conversion ratio (FCR), protein efficiency ratio (PER), and specific growth rate (SGR) were calculated using the tank as experimental replicate. Hepatosomatic (HSI), viscerosomatic (VSI) indexes, and condition factor (K) were calculated. Data were statistically analyzed by ANOVA (post-hoc test: Tukey).

Preliminary results (Table 2) indicate that the inclusion of HI significantly affected fish performances and K. Generally, up to 25% of FM substitution, fish performed as well as CF or CV.