Even though more and more vegetarian and vegan options are available, consumer demand for meat continues to rise. That is why it is important to also look at the sustainability of the meat sector: how do you ensure that livestock can be kept more efficiently?
A possible solution is (the cultivation of) insects as animal feed. In a scientific article published last week in Science, Arnold van Huis of Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and a colleague from Università degli Studi di Turino (I) listed the biggest advantages and challenges.
Why insects as animal feed?
Livestock feed now consists of fish meal and soya. Van Huis: “This type of feed has adverse effects on the environment, such as deforestation and the use of pesticides for soy. Depending on the animal to be fed, part of the fishmeal or soy can be replaced by insects. A major advantage of insects is that we can use fruit and vegetable waste and even manure to feed them, so we can use these residual flows as high-quality feed for animals.”
In addition, farming insects emits few greenhouse gases and requires little land and water. But there are more advantages, according to Van Huis: “Insects as animal feed are not only a good source of food, but also seem to be beneficial for the health of the animals. For example, chitin, the external skeleton of insects, strengthens the immune system. Insects as animal feed should could even be a substitute for antibiotics.”
What is needed to apply it on a large scale?
The use of insects as a new food source for livestock therefore seems promising. But there are still a number of challenges, says the WUR researcher, such as automation of the production system, better digestion in the intestine of the insect by using bacteria, genetic selection of the insect so that larvae perform better in the conversion of residual flows , disease prevention, and the safe use of insects as an ingredient in animal feed.
Van Huis: “At the moment, the sector cannot produce enough insects to meet the amount of animal feed it needs. The prices of insects as animal feed are also still too high, but innovations will make prices fall and become competitive compared to soya or fishmeal. The biggest challenge for the sector is to find sufficient, cheap, reliable and safe organic waste streams that can easily be converted by the insects into a high-quality animal feed product.”
Photo: Dreamstime
Click here for the publication in Science.
Source: WUR