Meta-analysis of the effect of black soldier fly larvae meal in diet on broiler performance and prediction of its metabolisable energy value

Figures & data

Figure 1. PRISMA flow diagram (AMEn: apparent metabolisable energy corrected to zero nitrogen balance).

Table 1. Summary the of studies used to develop prediction models of the metabolisable energy value of black soldier fly larvae meal (BSFLM).

Author	Country	Type of BSFLM tested	Assayed energy value	Methodology
De Marco et al. (2015)	Italy	Full fat	AME, AMEn	25% substitution in a maize-soybean meal based diet (34 day-old chicks)
Matin et al. (2021)	USA	Partially defatted	TMEn	Precision feeding (25–35 g) in conventional roosters fasted for 26 h
Mwaniki and Kiarie (2019)	Canada	Highly defatted	AME, AMEn	35% substitution in a nitrogen-free diet (17 day-old chicks)
Schiavone et al. (2017)	Italy	Partially defatted and highly defatted	AME, AMEn	25% substitution in a maize-soybean meal based diet (32 day-old chicks)

Note: AME: apparent metabolisable energy; AMEn: apparent metabolisable energy corrected to zero nitrogen balance; TMEn: true metabolisable energy corrected to zero nitrogen balance.

Table 2. Summary of the studies included in the meta-analysis.

Author	Country	Line	BSFLM^a tested	Age at data collection	Time on feeding the experimental diets
Affedzie-obresi et al. (2020)	Ghana	Cobb 500	N.A.^b	56	56
Attivi et al. (2020)	Togo	Ross 308	N.A.	42	42
Brede et al. (2018)	Germany	Ross 308	Partially defatted	35	35
Cockcroft (2018)	South Africa	Cobb 500	Full fat and partially defatted	32	28
Dabbou et al. (2018)	Italy	Ross 308	Partially defatted	35	35
Hartinger et al. (2021)	Austria	Ross 308	Highly defatted	35	35
Kim et al. (2022)	Korea	Ross 308	Highly defatted	35	35
Murawska et al. (2021)	Poland	Ross 308	Full fat	42	42
Neumann et al. (2018)	Germany	Ross 308	Partially defatted	34	34
Oluokun (2010)	Nigeria	Native	Full fat	70	70
Onsongo et al. (2018)	Kenya	Cobb 500	Full fat	49	42
Opoku et al. (2018)	Ghana	Cobb 500	Full fat	56	56
Schoor (2017)	South Africa	Cobb 500	Full fat	29	29
Uushona (2015)	South Africa	Cobb 500	Full fat	35	32
Van der Heide et al. (2021)	Denmark	Ross 308	Highly defatted	35	35
Van Emmenes (2021)	South Africa	Ross 308	Full fat	42	35
Velten et al. (2018)	Germany	Ross 308	Partially defatted	34	34
Yaseen Kareem et al. (2018)	India	Cobb 500	Full fat	42	42

^aBlack soldier fly larvae meal.

^bNot available.

Table 3. Descriptive statistics of the synthetic dataset built to develop prediction models of apparent metabolisable energy corrected to zero nitrogen balance (AMEn) in black soldier fly larvae meal (values on dry matter basis).

Parameter	Mean	Standard deviation	Minimum	Maximum
Gross energy, MJ/kg	22.39	1.15	18.82	25.90
Crude protein, %	53.41	8.28	28.23	80.21
Crude fat, %	17.67	8.36	0.02	44.46
AMEn, MJ/kg	13.96	1.93	8.80	20.45

Table 4. Descriptive statistics of several parameters in the studies selected for the meta-analysis.

Parameter	n	Mean	Standard deviation	Minimum	Maximum
Averaged BSFLM, % diet	41	11.40	6.80	2.00	34.80
Averaged AMEn, MJ/kg dry matter	63	13.97	0.81	12.64	15.08
Averaged CP, % dry matter	63	23.27	2.13	19.08	29.60
Average AMEn intake, MJ/d	63	1.21	0.19	0.72	1.64
Average CP intake, g/d	63	20.00	3.80	11.30	27.70
Initial body weight, g	37	43.70	4.80	35.30	55.00
Final body weight, g	55	2216.00	443.00	1369.00	3182.00
Average daily gain, g/d	63	55.20	13.10	20.90	76.00
Average feed intake, g/d	63	95.40	15.70	58.50	127.60
Feed conversion ratio, g/g	63	1.79	0.36	1.34	2.80

Note: BSFLM: black soldier fly larvae meal; AMEn: apparent metabolisable energy corrected to zero nitrogen balance; CP: crude protein.

Table 5. Effects of feeding diets with increasing levels of black soldier fly larvae meal (BSFLM) on the growth performance parameters of broilers.

Parameter	Diet			SEM	p
	Control n = 22	BSFLMlow n = 17	BSFLMhigh n = 24		Model	Linear	Quadratic
Final body weight, g	2234.00	2204.00	2166.00	61.30	.64	.39	.89
Average daily gain, g/d	57.10	56.60	55.40	1.99	.63	.39	.77
Average feed intake, g/d	97.20	94.30	94.60	1.54	.34	.35	.85
Feed conversion ratio, g/g	1.76	1.76	1.77	0.04	.95	.83	.82

Note: BSFLM_low and BSFLM_high: 5.7 ± 2.3% and 15.5 ± 6.0% BSFLM in the diet; SEM: standard error of the mean.

Table 6. Performance of the models developed for prediction of apparent metabolisable energy corrected to zero nitrogen balance (AMEn).

Statistics	Training dataset		Evaluation dataset
	Regression	Neural network	Regression	Neural network
R^2	0.858	0.856	0.859	0.858
RMSEP, MJ/kg dry matter	0.731	0.737	0.726	0.729
RMSEP, % mean	5.227	5.271	5.216	5.241
RSR, % standard deviation	19.410	19.580	19.480	19.580
CCC	0.924	0.920	0.924	0.921
Central tendency error, %	0.000	0.010	0.200	0.360
Linear error, %	0.000	0.370	0.000	0.350
Random error, %	100.000	99.620	99.800	99.290

Note: R²: coefficient of determination; RMSEP: root mean square error of prediction; RSR: standardised RMSEP; CCC: concordance correlation coefficient.

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Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [A. L. M. M.], upon reasonable request.