Assessing the growth performance of mealworms reared on maize bran and rice bran.
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Date
2026
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Busitema University
Abstract
Mealworm production has potential to utilize locally available agricultural by-products as feed substrates for biomass production which can be used in livestock production for example in swine, poultry and fish production as source of protein replacing scarce soybean and fishmeal. However, limited information is available on the performance of mealworms on common agricultural by-products under local production conditions. This study assessed the growth performance (weight gain (WG), feed intake (FI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of mealworm larvae (Tenebrio molitor) reared on different substrates in Arapai Sub-county, Soroti District, Eastern Uganda. A Completely Randomized Design (CRD) was used in a ten weeks experimental study conducted to assess the effect of three treatments on larval growth performance. The treatments consisted of 100% maize bran, 100% rice bran and 50:50 mixture of maize bran and rice bran. 150 mealworm larvae were used for every treatment and each treatment had three (3) replicates which were reared under controlled conditions
Data were collected weekly and analyzed using repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) in SPSS at α=0.05. The results showed that substrate type had no significant effect on feed intake (F (2, 6) = 4.034; P = 0.078), weight gain (F(2,6) = 4.638; P = 0.061), and FCR (F(2,6) = 4.986; P = 0.053). Numerically, T2 recorded the highest feed intake (0.048 g), T3 recorded the highest weight gain (0.010 g), while T1 recorded the lowest FCR (3.26). Feed intake, weight gain and, FCR all varied significantly across weeks. The study concludes that none of the three substrates was statistically superior in overall growth performance. It is recommended that further studies should be done to evaluate the economic suitability of the substrates by relating substrate use to mealworm biomass production and production costs.
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Undergraduate research report
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Nsereko, C. (2026). Assessing the growth performance of mealworms reared on maize bran and rice bran. [Unpublished undergraduate research report]. Busitema University.