Effect of dietary incorporation of silkworm pupae meal on in vitro rumen fermentation and digestibility

This experiment was conducted to study the effect of supplementation of different inclusion levels of defatted silkworm pupae meal (DSWP) on in vitro rumen fermentation and digestibility. Eleven concentrate mixtures were formulated with graded levels of DSWP by replacing 0 (T-0), 10 (T-1), 20 (T-2), 30 (T-3), 40 (T-4), 50 (T-5), 60 (T-6), 70, (T-7), 80 (T-8), 90 (T-9) and 100% (T-10) of soybean meal (SBM) protein of the control concentrate mixture. In vitro experiments were conducted to study the effect of supplementation of different levels of DSWP in the concentrate mixture on finger millet straw (FMS) based diets (30: 70). In vitro total gas production (IVTGP), pH, ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), total volatile fatty acids (TVFA), partitioning factor (PF), microbial biomass production (MBB), metabolizable energy (ME), in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) and in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) were determined. No significant difference was observed in pH, NH3-N, TVFA, PF, MBB, ME, IVDMD and IVOMD among treatments (T-0 to T-10). The results indicated that DSWP can be safely incorporated in the concentrate mixture by replacing 100% conventional protein without affecting the rumen fermentation and digestibility. Hence, it was concluded that supplementation of DSWP up to 100% had no significant effect on in vitro rumen fermentation and digestibility on FMS based ration.