Growth performance of black soldier fly larvae (hermetia illucens) fed on wheat bran substrate treated with honey bee and stingless bee propolis

Abstract

Biomass of BSFL is part of ingredients of feeds for aquaculture, livestock and poultry industries. Thus, with promising results, BSFL have been considered as a potential protein alternative source in commercial animal feeds formulation. However, for large scale production, its overall growth performance and productivity needs to be enhanced. Recent studies showed that addition of honey bee propolis extracts immunostimulant to wheat bran substrates increased mean weights of BSFL. However, there is no study that has compared both the effects of honey bee propolis and stingless bee propolis extracts on the growth performance of BSFL. The current study was aimed at comparing the effects of both honey bee propolis and stingless bee propolis extracts addition to wheat bran substrates on BSFL weight and its overall growth performance. A 10 days experiment in which groups of 100 BSFL (5day old) were each fed on 0.5kgs of wheat bran substrate mixed with 1L of tap water and treated separately with 0g, 0.2g, 0.4g, 0.6g or 0.8g honey bee propolis and stingless bee propolis extracts was conducted at Makerere University, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, School of Food Science Technology, Nutrition and Bio-engineering, Department of Food Technology and Nutrition, Black Soldier fly unit. Generally, the results showed that for the first five days, 0.6g honey bee propolis (0.2084 ± 0.0387) extracts treatment produced slightly the heaviest mean BSFL weights as compared to stingless bee propolis extract treatments while the control treatment (0.1009±0.0295) produced the least mean BSFL weights. Then ten days after the larvae had hatched there was a no significant difference in mean BSFL weights produced. However, 0.6g (0.267±0.061) honey bee propolis extract treatment produced a slightly heaviest BSFL mean weights compared to the rest of the treatments while the control (0.201±0.054) treatment produced the least mean BSFL weights. Therefore; this research has proven honey bee propolis extracts to be potent and therefore recommended for use in enhancing the growth performance of BSFL compared to stingless bee propolis extracts. However, in order to increase results reliability, future studies ought to assess the effects of both honey bee propolis and stingless bee propolis extracts on the proximate composition of BSFL and later stages of development such as pupae and adult stages.