Effect of Black Soldier Fly Larva as a Meal on Proximate Composition and Carcass Quality of African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus)

The need to substitute the scarce and expensive fishmeal with a cheaper alternative has drawn attention to the use of insect protein in feeds due to their abundance and high nutritional value. In this regard the Black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) stands out due to its dual ability of recycling organic waste materials into useful biomass for feed. This resulted in several studies that assessed the quality of carcass produced by livestock fed with the larva meal. However, very little studies have been carried out on the effect of this larva meal on the carcass quality of the African catfish (Clarias gariepinus). Here, this study showed that the Black soldier fly larva meal can be used to replace fishmeal in the diet of Clarias gariepinus up to 75% to increase the quality of carcass. Four treatment diets of compounded fish feed were formulated to contain Black soldier fly larva meal replacing fishmeal at different inclusion rates of 0%, 50%, 75% and 100%. The values for condition factor recorded from each treatment were above 1, which imply that the fish were in good physiological state. The values of the hepatosomatic indices observed among the treatment diets indicate that feeding Black soldier fly larva meal to Clarias gariepinus had no negative impact on the liver functionality and no excessive hepatic accumulation of fat or carbohydrate as the values were within the normal range (1–2%). The fillet yield was significantly highest for fish fed 75% larva meal. Meanwhile, the productive potential carcass quality was also noticed to have increased with the increasing rate of larva meal inclusion up to 75%. Our results demonstrate that Black soldier fly larva meal can be used to replace fishmeal in the diet of Clarias gariepinus up to 75% to reduce cost of feeding without compromising the quality of carcass produced.