Black Soldier Fly for Use as Fish Feed: The Rainbow Trout Journey Continues

Over the years, a few papers have explored the use of BSF as a feed for rainbow trout. And, we seem to be making progress with our understanding of the value of BSF as a feed and how best to optimize its use. This article, see below, was published as part of the special issue in Animals. 

Cardinaletti, G.; Randazzo, B.; Messina, M.; Zarantoniello, M.; Giorgini, E.; Zimbelli, A.; Bruni, L.; Parisi, G.; Olivotto, I.; Tulli, F. Effects of Graded Dietary Inclusion Level of Full-Fat Hermetia illucens Prepupae Meal in Practical Diets for Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Animals 2019, 9, 251.

Main point from this particular paper was the inclusion of BSF at 50% resulted in up regulation of genes related to stress and immune response. Keep in mind, these larvae were full-fat. So, it might be possible to reduce the impact of the BSF 50% diet by removing the fat from the larvae. One other thing to note, growth of the fish was not impacted. So, as far as production- no issue. 


Insects as Food & Feed in the News

Out of Germany- a brief summary of insects as livestock. Discusses the larger picture of insects that potentially be farmed. 

Canadian Company Produces Dog Food- a nice article on Wilder Harrier and the production of dog food from insects (crickets). According the the article they are meet the standards of AAFCO (USA) and CIFA (Canada).

UK - Insects as Food: Not a Panacea for Environmental Issues- interesting article discussing limited evidence supporting the use of insects as food. I think you will find it an interesting read. Keep in mind, this article does not apply to the insects as feed sector.

Is Eating Insects Morally Different than Eating a Cow? So, if you kill one cow for human consumption and kill 10s of thousands, maybe millions, to produce the same amount of protein- which is more morally acceptable?

Author

Jeffery K. Tomberlin, PhD, I saw a 750 mg BSF larva recently
Director, EVO Conversion Systems
Twitter: @FliesFacility