ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Anim. Sci.
Sec. Animal Physiology and Management
Effect of insect farming by-product (frass) as a novel bedding material on litter quality, growth performance, carcass traits, and meat quality of broiler chickens
Provisionally accepted
Márk Tóth1
Marco Birolo2*
Bianca Federica Palumbo3Eleonora Nalon4
Antonio Frangipane di Regalbono3
Valerio Giaccone3Márta Erdélyi1
Antonella Dalle Zotte3- 1Department of Feed Safety, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Gödöllő, Hungary
- 2Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and the Environment, Universita degli Studi di Padova, Padua, Italy
- 3Department of Animal Medicine, Production and Health, Universita degli Studi di Padova, Padua, Italy
- 4Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animal and Environment, Universita degli Studi di Padova, Padua, Italy
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The present study evaluated the effects of supplementing wood shavings with different inclusion levels of yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) frass on litter quality, growth performance, slaughter traits, and the meat quality of broiler chickens. A total of 352 one-day old Ross 308 male broilers were allocated to 16 pens (4 replicates per treatment; 22 chicks per replicate) with four bedding treatments: 100% wood shavings (F0, control), or wood shavings supplemented with 10% (F10), 20% (F20), or 30% (F30) of frass. Individual live weight (LW) and daily weight gain (DWG), and pen-level daily feed intake (DFI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were recorded during the trial. At 42 days of age, chickens were slaughtered to assess carcass yield, cut proportions, and the occurrence of breast myopathies, while meat quality parameters were measured on breast (pectoralis major) and thigh (iliotibialis lateralis) muscles. The DFI was significantly reduced at all frass inclusion levels compared to the control group. Final LW (P = 0.011012), and overall DWG (P = 0.004) were significantly lower in F10 and F30 compared with F0, while overall FCR was not affected. Carcass and breast yields did not differ among treatments, while breast meatthigh yield was significantly reduced at higher frass levelsin F0 group (P = 0.024023). Breast myopathies and meat quality parameters remained unaffected by the bedding treatments. These findings indicate that yellow mealworm frass can be supplemented in conventional bedding materials in broiler production without compromising meat quality traits. However, in F30 group growth performance and breast yield were impaired, suggesting that frass inclusion should not exceed 20%.
Keywords: Bedding material, Insect frass, meat quality, Poultry litter quality, Productive performance
Received: 22 Oct 2025; Accepted: 16 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tóth, Birolo, Palumbo, Nalon, Frangipane di Regalbono, Giaccone, Erdélyi and Dalle Zotte. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Marco Birolo
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