This study evaluated the effects of a diet containing yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor L.; TM) larva meal on quality parameters (pH24, color and drip losses), proximate composition and fatty acid (FA) profile of meat from free-range chickens. A total of 140 medium-growing hybrid female chickens were free-range reared and randomly allotted to two dietary treatments: a control group and a TM group, in which TM meal was included at 75 g kg−1 as fed in substitution of corn gluten meal. Each group consisted of five pens as replicates, with 14 chicks per pen. At 97 days of age, ten birds (two birds/pen) from each feeding group were slaughtered at a commercial abattoir. Quality parameters and proximate composition of breast and thigh meat were not affected by treatment. The effects of dietary TM larva meal on the FA profile of thigh meat were negligible. Breast meat from TM-fed chickens showed higher oleic and α-linolenic acid percentages as well as lower atherogenicity and thrombogenicity indexes. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that TM inclusion in diets for free-range chickens did not prejudice meat quality traits. The obtained results confirm that TM can be considered a promising insect protein source for the poultry feed industry.

The inscribed thigh of the rider on the white horse in Rev 19.16 is an allusion to an MT – like Gen 49.10b text. The phrase ‘inscribed on his thigh’ was a legitimate translation of the words found in Gen 49.10b at the time of the composition of Revelation.

The effect of supplementation with different levels of all-rac-α-tocopheryl acetate and the inclusion of different dietary contents of PUFA on the deposition of α-tocopherol stereoisomers in liver and thigh of chickens was evaluated. Ninety-six 1-d-old Ross female broiler chickens were randomly distributed into eight experimental treatments (three replicates each) resulting from four levels of α-tocopheryl acetate without supplementation and supplemented with 100, 200 and 400 mg α-tocopheryl acetate/kg and two levels of dietary PUFA (15 and 61 g/kg). The feeds supplemented with α-tocopheryl acetate contained a similar proportion of each stereoisomer. The diets without α-tocopheryl acetate had the following α-tocopherol stereoisomers (%): RRR 35·1, RRS 24·5, RSR 25·3, RSS 13·9 and total 2S forms 1·3. Consumption of different levels of α-tocopheryl acetate did not lead to statistical differences in α-tocopherol stereoisomer proportion in the liver and thigh. In general, the stereoisomer profiles in the tissues studied were similar, responding to the stereoisomer profile of the diet. Both tissues preferentially accumulated 2R stereoisomer (69–100%). However, when α-tocopheryl acetate was used the discrimination was not specific for the RRR α-tocopherol form. Furthermore, the 2R:2S ratio had a tendency to increase as the polyunsaturation level of the diet increased.