Inclusion of Processed Soldier Ant as Dietary Supplement on the Growth Performance of Growing Rats: Nutritional and Toxicological Studies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46881/ajsn.v1i1.24Keywords:
Soldier ant, Fishmeal, Rat, Growth performanceAbstract
This study evaluates the nutritional status of fishmeal diet supplemented with processed soldier ants and its effects on liver function, and the growth performance of growing rats. Thirty Rats, aged 3 weeks, were randomly assigned to the dietary treatments (T) on a complete randomised design with six rats per treatment. The rats were fed with diets containing 0%, 1.49%, 7.45%, 14.89% and 29.78% processed soldier ants respectively. These values correspond to 0%, 5%, 25%, 50% and 100% substitution of fishmeal respectively. The experimental diets and clean drinking water were supplied to the rats ad libitum for a period of four weeks. Weight measurements were taken every one week and their daily weight gain(DWG)(g/day), feed conversion ratio (FCR), specific growth rate (SGR) and survival rate(SR) (%) were calculated. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), Serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and histological analysis of the liver tissues were used as diagnostic markers to assess liver dysfunction and the nutritional status of the diets. All the dietary supplements elicited growth performances with 100% survival rate among the treatments. The weekly increase in weight of the treatments followed the trend T5>T4>T3>T2>T1. T5 displayed a significant higher (p<0.05) mean weight gain (120.10±17.71) followed by T4 (100.60±1.54) but significant reduction (p< 0.05) in mean weight gain was observed in T1 (64.20±4.71). Least FCR was observed in T5 (0.52±0.08) followed by T4 (3.44±0.16) as compared to T1 (0.94±0.07). Significant increase (p < 0.05) in SGR was observed in T5 (1.25±0.14), followed by T4 (1.10±0.03) compared to T1 (0.77±0.05). The mean serum level of AST, ALT and ALP activities determined for T2, T3, T4 as compared with T1 were not significantly different (p>0.05).Histological analysis of the liver tissues of the treatments fed graded level of processed soldier ant diets and the control revealed normal histological architecture with no abnormality detected. Completely replacing fishmeal with processed soldier ant diet brings the best growth performance in rats without any adverse effects and could be recommended for livestock and animal production farmers whose aim is profit maximisation and reduction in running cost.
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