Carcass traits and meat quality assessment of two slow-growing chicks strains fed Acheta domesticus larval meal

Jaime Nieto; Javier Plaza; Miriam Hernández-Jiménez; Isabel Revilla; Carlos Palacios

doi:10.1016/j.psj.2024.103684

Carcass traits and meat quality assessment of two slow-growing chicks strains fed Acheta domesticus larval meal

Poult Sci. 2024 Mar 21;103(6):103684. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2024.103684. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Jaime Nieto¹, Javier Plaza², Miriam Hernández-Jiménez³, Isabel Revilla³, Carlos Palacios²

Affiliations

¹ Area of Animal Production, Faculty of Environmental and Agricultural Sciences, University of Salamanca, Salamanca 37007, Spain. Electronic address: jaimenl@usal.es.
² Area of Animal Production, Faculty of Environmental and Agricultural Sciences, University of Salamanca, Salamanca 37007, Spain.
³ Area of Food Technology, E.P.S. of Zamora, University of Salamanca, Zamora 49022, Spain.

Abstract

Presently, there has been a noticeable rise in the consumption of poultry meat within the general population, particularly focusing on poultry sourced from alternative rearing systems as opposed to intensive ones. This study evaluated the impact of incorporating house cricket (Acheta domesticus,AD) larvae meal into the diet of 2 slow-growing chicken strains on their carcass traits and meat quality. A total of 256 one-day-old male chicks were utilized, with 128 belonging to the Red (R) strain and 128 to the Naked Neck (NN) strain. Chicks from each strain were randomly assigned to 16 replicates of 8 chicks each. Eight replicates were allocated to 2 distinct treatments (n=64 chicks/treatment) based on the diet employed: the control treatments for the Red (R-C) and Naked Neck (NN-C) strains were fed soybean meal, while the other 2 treatments were fed AD meal (R-AD and NN-AD). Three different rations were used throughout the growth cycle of the animals, tailored to meet the nutritional needs of the birds. All chickens were slaughtered at 95 d of age, and eight chickens per treatment were randomly chosen to assess carcass traits and meat quality. Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) was employed to classify meat based on the feed and the chick strain, achieving a correct discrimination of 100% of the samples. The carcass traits exhibited significant alterations due to the inclusion of insect larval meal in the diet, resulting in reduced values across all parameters for chickens consuming AD meal, irrespective of genotype. The pH and cooking losses were generally higher for chicks fed cricket meal, as occurred with moisture. However, protein content was lower in the meat of chicks consuming cricket meal. Fat content showed lower values for NN chickens. There were minimal differences in the fatty acid profile, with lower C18:3n-3 values for chickens fed cricket meal. Therefore, including Acheta domesticus meal in the diets of slow-growing chick strains is a viable alternative to replace soybean meal. It provides meat quality characteristics comparable to those obtained in conventional systems.

Keywords: Acheta domesticus; alternative poultry systems; alternative protein source; meat quality; slow-growing chicken strains.