Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens) Larvae Meal: A Sustainable Alternative to Fish Meal Proven to Promote Growth and Immunity in Koi Carp (Cyprinus carpio var. koi)

Insect meal has shown promise as a potentially sustainable source of nutrients for aquafeeds,offering an alternative to expensive and ecologically undesirable ingredients, in the context of popu-lation explosion and climate change. Despite this promising outlook, its effects on fish growth andimmune responses remain to be thoroughly investigated. Our scientific goal was to experimentallytest responses to replacements of the fish meal with a protein source derived from black soldier flylarvae meal (BSFLM). Possible impacts on growth, immunological response, and the expression ofselected immune-system related genes were evaluated in Koi carp (Cyprinus carpiovar.koi) using abiofloc culture system. Three hundred fish (20.0 +/- 0.2 g) were allocated into five groups: a controlgroup receiving a basal diet containing 0 g kg-1BSFLM and four experimental groups in which fishmeal was replaced with 50, 100, 150, and 200 g kg-1BSFLM for eight weeks. After 4 weeks of feeding,there were no statistically significant differences in specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion ratio(FCR), and survival rate between fish fed BSFLM-enriched diets at 50, 100, 150 g kg-1and a control(0 g kg-1BSFLM) diet. However, fish fed 200 g kg-1BSFLM showed significantly improved weightgain (WG) and SGR compared to the control after 4 weeks; this difference persisted through 8 weeks(p< 0.05). After eight weeks, there was a moderate to weak negative linear regression shown in FCR(r= 0.470) and SR (r= 0.384), respectively, with the BSFLM levels, but significant and highly correlatedlinear relationships were observed in WG (r= 0.917) and SGR (r= 0.912). Immunological responseanalysis showed slight changes in lysozyme and peroxidase levels by replacing fish meal with BSFLM,but these apparent differences were not significantly related to experimental diets. Interestingly,mRNA transcripts of immune-related genes (TNF-alpha,TGF-beta,IL1,IL10, andhsp70) were upregulatedin the groups receiving higher amounts of BSFLM, with statistically significant differences observedin certain comparisons. Our findings reveal that fish meal can be effectively replaced by BSFLM,and that this not only has a positive effect on immune-related gene expression in Koi carp, but alsoon growth rate, pointing to the future potential role of BSFLM as an alternative fish meal protein inaquafeed formulation.