Insects for sustainable animal feed: Livestock farming in a climate change challenged world

Insects' potential as an alternative feed/food source is growing due to current trends toward global recognition of the imperative need to address contemporary agricultural systems' environmental impacts and enhance food and feed security. Insects are a potential alternative protein source as they grow and reproduce quickly, have high feed conversion efficiency, and be reared on bio-waste streams and transform waste biomass into a high-value feed resource. It is technically feasible to produce insects on a large scale, as sustainable protein in pig and poultry diets. Insect protein includes essential amino acids (lysine, methionine, and leucine) limited in protein vegetable origin. High protein levels (40-44%) and amino acid profiles are better than soymeal and similar to fish meal. Protein digestibility is essential when considering the nutritive value of insects. However, little information is available.

This project aims to provide further information regarding the inclusion of insects as feed ingredient in livestock animals. For this purpose, different in vitro trials will be conducted, assessing the effects of the use of different insect species and industrial processing treatments on the quality of the insect derived products. These studies will included for the first time the application of infrared spectroscopy techniques (FT-IR) to predict the chemical composition and in vitro digestibility of insects. Insects may act as an antimicrobial agent, with the potential to control various foodborne pathogens. Insect protein has been the source of different potent bioactive peptides capable of diverse biological functions. Therefore, after digestion in the animal gut, insect protein can generate peptides with antimicrobial properties that can potentially tackle bacterial pathogen infection. This is primarily associated with the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, a matter of global concern, which has triggered the search for alternatives to antibiotics in livestock production. This study will compare the pre-biotic potential of different insect derived products vs soya in simulated in vitro fermentation system.