Korean Journal of Agricultural Science ISSN:2466-2402(Print) 2466-2410(Online) 농업과학연구

Among insect species, black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) is a promising ingredient for animal feed as a dietary source. Moreover, BSFL contains a high content of lauric acid (C12:0), which has antimicrobial effects. Therefore, this study evaluated the effect of BSFL oil (BSFLO) as a partial or total replacement of soybean oil (SBO) on the cecal microbiota in broilers. A total of 210 male broiler chickens (Ross 308) at one-day of age were randomly allotted to 3 dietary treatments (10 replicates and 7 birds/group): a basal control diet (CON), the basal diet in which SBO was replaced by 50% (50 BSFLO) or 100% (100 BSFLO) BSFLO. At the end of the study (d 35), 18 birds (6 broilers/treatment) were randomly selected and slaughtered. Samples of cecal digesta were collected to verify their cecal microbiota. Overall, 235,978 gene sequences were generated, and a total of 4,398 operational taxonomic units were identified in the three groups. At the phylum level, Firmicutes was the dominant phyla in all three groups. At the genus level, Faecalibacterium was the dominant genera in all the treatments. There were no significant differences in the relative abundances of all the genera between the BSFLO groups and CON. However, the genus Erysipelatoclostridium was more abundant in the 50 BSFLO group than in the CON (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the substitution of SBO with BSFLO in broiler diets had no negative effect on the cecal microbiota of broilers.