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Journal of Animal Science and Technology
Korean Society of Animal Science and Technology

J Anim Sci Technol

pISSN: 2672-0191, eISSN: 2055-0391

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5187/jast.2500165

Article

Alternative Nutritional Evaluation of Black Soldier Fly with Various Substrates in Cat Diets and Its Effects on Fecal Microbiota

Kyeongho Jeon1, Jihwan Lee2, Minho Song3, Kwanho Park4, Seyeon Chang1, Dongcheol Song1, Hyuck Kim1, Jinmo Yang1, Jinho Cho1,*
1Department of Animal Science, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 28644, Korea.
2Swine Science Division, National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration, Cheonan 31000, Korea.
3Division of Animal and Dairy Science, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea.
4Industrial Insect and Sericulture Division, Department of Agricultural Biology, National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, RDA, Wanju 55365, Korea.
*Corresponding Author: Jinho Cho, Department of Animal Science, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 28644, Korea, Republic of. E-mail: jinhcho@cbnu.ac.kr.

© Copyright 2025 Korean Society of Animal Science and Technology. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: May 12, 2025; Revised: May 30, 2025; Accepted: Jun 19, 2025

Published Online: Jul 01, 2025

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the effects of proper substitution ratios and organic substrates of black soldier fly larvae (<italic>Hermetia illucens</italic> larvae; HIL) on cats. A total of 30 mixed-sex domestic cats (<italic>Felis domestica</italic>) with an initial body weight of 5.06 ± 0.89 kg were used in this experiment, which used an incomplete 5 × 5 replicated Latin square design. The experimental period was 10 d, with 7 d of diet adaptation followed by 3 d of dietary treatment. The dietary treatments were provided: 1) CON (basal diet), 2) HA3 (replacing 3% of the poultry meal (PM) in the basal diet with HIL fed on animal-based substrate), 3) HA6 (replacing 6% of the PM in the basal diet with HIL fed on animal-based substrate), 4) HP3 (replacing 3% of the PM in the basal diet with HIL fed on plant-based substrate) 5) HP6 (replacing 6% of the PM in the basal diet with HIL fed on plant-based substrate). The HA3 group showed significantly higher (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05) crude protein (CP) digestibility than the CON group. The groups replaced by HIL had significantly higher (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05) ether extract (EE) digestibility than the CON group. The leucine, tryptophan, serine, and aspartic acid digestibility were significantly increased (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05) in the groups replaced by HIL compared to the CON group. The HP6 group showed distinct (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05) unweighted UniFrac distances from all other groups and weighted UniFrac distances from the CON and HP3 groups. In addition, the CON group exhibited significant differences (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05) in weighted UniFrac distances compared to all treatment groups. At the genus level, the HP6 group showed increased (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05) abundance of <italic>Bacteroidota</italic> compared with the CON group, while the CON exhibited higher (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05) levels of <italic>Firmicutes</italic> than the HP6 group. In conclusion, substituting PM with HIL in cat diets improved nutrient digestibility and had no negative impact on the fecal microbiome. Therefore, it is considered safe and effective to substitute up to 6% of the protein source with HIL in cat diets.

Keywords: Hermetia illucens larvae; organic substrates; fecal microbiome; nutrient digestibility; cat