New horizons in live and dehydrated black soldier fly larvae usage: Behavioral and welfare implications in "Bianca di Saluzzo" cockerels.

ABSTRACT: The literature on poultry welfare and behavior reports numerous promising effects derived from the administration of live or dehydrated black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) as environmental enrichment; however, their use in slow-growing male chickens has never been evaluated. To fill this gap, we divided a total of 144 Bianca di Saluzzo male chicks aged 39 days old into three experimental groups (six replicates, eight birds/replicate): control (C, no enrichment provided), dehydrated larvae (DL, 4.12% as fed), and live larvae (LL, 15.38% as fed), and reared until 147 days of age. Explorative and aggressive behavior patterns were analyzed, in concomitance with a tonic immobility test and the avoidance distance test, heterophile to lymphocyte -H/L- ratio), and excreta corticosterone metabolites (E

SUBMITTER: Bongiorno V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11844914 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature