Exploring the chemical safety of fly larvae as a source of protein for animal feed

Abstract

There is an urgent need to increase the supply of sustainable protein for use in animal feed and the use of insect protein provides a potential alternative to protein crops and fishmeal. For example, fly larvae are highly compatible with use in animal feed containing much digestible protein with levels of key amino acids that are comparable with those found in high value alternatives such as soybean. However, the safety of protein from insects and subsequently the meat and fish from animals fed on such a diet requires further assessment. Here we present safety data from the larvae of the four fly species that have perhaps the greatest economic relevance in relation to their use as animal feed being: house fly (Musca domestica), blue bottle (Calliphora vomitoria), blow fly (Chrysomya spp.) and black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens). Diverse rearing methods were used to produce larvae fed on a range of waste substrates and in four geographically dispersed locations being; UK, China, Mali and Ghana. Chemical safety data were collected by a fully accredited laboratory in the UK. The levels of the main subclasses of chemical contaminants considered for animal feed were determined, being; veterinary medicines, pesticides, heavy metals, dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and mycotoxins. The larvae analysed generally possessed levels of chemical contaminants which were below recommended maximum concentrations suggested by bodies such as the European Commission, the World Health Organisation and Codex. However, the toxic heavy metal cadmium was found to be of concern in three of the M. domestica samples analysed.

Replacement of soybean cake by Hermetia illucens meal in diets for layers

“…by heat treatment) in order to ensure feed and food safety need to be developed and strictly followed. Bioaccumulation of cadmium presents a main risk which cannot be addressed by processing (Charlton et al, 2015). The European Food Safety Authority is concerned with the problem of food and feed safety (Van der Spiegel et al, 2013) but at present no official statement is available.…”

“…Many insect species can potentially be used for producing insect biomass, but most promising are the larvae of the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens), the common housefly (Musca domestica), the yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) as well as blue bottle (Calliphora vomitoria) and blow flies (Chrysomya spp.) (Charlton et al, 2015). Insects can feed on a broad variety of materials including manure and they have a better feed conversion rate than most other animals, which reduces wastage and costs (Khusro et al, 2012).…”

“…This might be the main reason why, to the best of our knowledge, no feeding trials using insects as feed components for laying hens have yet been published. On the other hand, more data about application of insects as livestock feed (Makkar et al, 2014) as well as safety issues (Belluco et al, 2013;Charlton et al, 2015) would probably be necessary to move political processes forward in a responsible way. This paper describes two experimental H. illucensbased diets for layers and a trial carried out with small experimental layer flocks.…”

Edible insects contributing to food security?

“…Food safety issues have been addressed by a number of authors with immediate impact on legislative issues [21,49,67,68]. Possible hazards are contaminants, like heavy metals, mycotoxins, pesticide residues, and pathogens.…”

A study on Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus) emphasising breeding season and feeding behaviour in captivity

“…Issue , () 2014). Invertebrates mostly of insects are good source of protein while plants are enriched in calcium level that is essential for egg production (Moorthi et al, 2014;Charlton et al, 2015;Nowak et al, 2016). From this study, it is evaluated that percentage occurrence of plants and animal components from faecal analysis technique, further studies are required to find out which percentage of actually ingested feed is defecated.…”