Nutritive Value and In Vivo Digestibility of Rhinoceros Beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros l.) Larva Meal in Laying Quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

Insects have long been observed and studied as an alternative nutrient resource for poultry feed production. Insects offer adequate essential nutrients as a feed source. Beetles are the most common insect species utilized mostly in their larval stages. This study was conducted to determine the nutritive and in vivo digestibility of Rhinoceros Beetle Larva Meal (RBLM) in laying quails. For the nutritive study, live Rhinoceros Beetle larvae were collected in decaying trunks of coconut and other palm families. A kilogram of these larvae were processed into RBLM, weighed, freeze-dried and submitted for chemical analysis. Results revealed that RBLM has a rate of recovery of 33%, dry matter content of 37.70%, 1.42% ash, 20.70% crude protein, 6.50% crude fat, 7.71% crude fiber, 200 mg/Kg calcium,250 mg/Kg phosphorus, and 51.10 mg/Kg iron content. In the digestibility study, a total of fifteen five-month-old quails were given 16 grams of RBLM/hd/day for five days. Feces were collected daily and freeze-dried for chemical analysis. Results showed that dry matter, crude fat, crude fiber, and calcium contents of RBLM have high digestibilities in laying quails with 69.10%, 78.97%, 73.02%, and 59.11%, respectively. Also, ash, crude protein, phosphorus and iron composition of RBLM have satisfactory digestibilities of 45.59%, 35.69%, 31.06%, and 36.88%, respectively. Therefore, RBLM has high nutritive composition and these nutrients are highly digestible in laying quails. Thus, RBLM can be an alternative nutrient resource for laying quails.