Usage of Edible Aquatic Insects for Feed Rations of Poultry Animals

Abstract

With the rapidly increasing population of people today, mass production, inexpensive labor, low cost, high market share and economic sufficiency are the first issues that come to mind in poultry farming. The most important cost in the poultry farming sector is production of food. As insects are in the richest group that provides species variations in the feeds for living beings, they are a significant source of feeding poultry animals. In addition to this, it is believed that aquatic insects (Coleoptera) are a source with very high protein contents that is used in poultry husbandry. The levels of edible insect consumption are only known by some people in the world. In feeding hens, hen feeds may be experimentally used by mixing these with other edible insect groups that are easier to obtain. As it is possible to use edible insects as protein sources in human consumption, these may also be utilized in feeding poultry animals that are grown for eggs. Our aim for the future is to develop alternative methods that aim to enrich the quality of meat and eggs from poultry animals and conduct a study that provides statistical analysis results regarding hematological, biochemical and economic data. Moreover, we expected to see whether or not there would be potential health risks related to the consumption of these mixed feeds by laying hens and broilers. Consequently, the purpose of this review study is to provide information about edible aquatic insect species which are more economical and practical.

Edible Aquatic Insects: Diversities, Nutrition, and Safety

“…It is a valuable and innovative proposal to use edible aquatic insects as feed, and some species, such as mosquito larvae, could provide a convenient source of feed [ 19 , 165 ]. Mosquitos have the distinct biological characteristics of a short lifecycle, high occurrence densities, and wide distribution.…”

Can we farm aquatic insects for human food or livestock feed?

“…Further, Shaw and Mark (1980) reported that on a 13.5 ha farm in Hong Kong, chicken manure was successfully used to rear chironomids which were then used to feed fishes -the larval yield being 25 g/m 2 per week. The intervening 40 years do not appear to have produced further examples, although (Bektas and Guler, 2019) have reported the addition of aquatic insects to the feed rations of poultry.…”