Evaluation of Pelleting Mealworm (Tenebrio Molitor) Powder with Chokeberry By-product Meal To improve Duck Production and Meat Quality Traits

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation pelleted Tenebrio molitor (TM) powder with chokeberry by-product (CBP) meal on duck production and meat quality traits. A total of 180 0-day-old Pekin ducks were allocated randomly between three dietary groups viz., control, Treatment 1, and Treatment 2, with three pens per group and twenty birds per pen, characterized by increasing levels of pelleted TM powder with CBP meal in concentration of 0%, 1.5%, and 3%, respectively, and reared until 42 days of age in a completely randomized design. On day 42, the ducks were sacrificed, and breast and thigh muscles were used for meat quality evaluations. Feeding pelleted TM powder with CBP meal resulted in a significant difference in final body weight, weight gain and feed conversion ratio ( p <0.05). Additionally, a significant difference was observed in the pH of the breast meat samples ( p <0.05). As the only significant difference between the breast and thigh meat, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryhydrazyl radical scavenging was influenced significantly by the dietary inclusion of pelleted TM powder with CBP meal ( p <0.05). However, the values of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and meat color in both breast and thigh meat were insignificant ( p >0.05) different among all groups. To conclude, the inclusion of up to 3 % of pelleted TM powder with CBP meal in the diets of ducks did improve the growth production and antioxidant characteristics effects, which could decrease TBARS and reflected by changes in 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl free DPPH radical scavenging values.