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

由于目前的趋势是全球认识到迫切需要解决当代农业系统的环境影响并加强粮食和饲料安全，昆虫作为替代饲料/食物来源的潜力正在增长。昆虫生长繁殖快，饲料转化效率高，可在生物废物流中饲养，将废弃生物质转化为高价值的饲料资源，是潜在的替代蛋白质来源。大规模生产昆虫作为猪和家禽日粮中的可持续蛋白质在技术上是可行的。昆虫蛋白质包括必需氨基酸（赖氨酸、蛋氨酸和亮氨酸），这些氨基酸在植物性蛋白质中是有限的。蛋白质含量高（40-44%），氨基酸含量优于豆粕，与鱼粉相似。在考虑昆虫的营养价值时，蛋白质消化率是必不可少的。然而，这方面的信息很少。本项目旨在提供有关将昆虫作为牲畜饲料成分的进一步信息。为此，将进行不同的体外试验，评估使用不同昆虫种类和工业加工处理对昆虫衍生产品质量的影响。这些研究将首次包括应用红外光谱技术（FT-IR）来预测昆虫的化学成分和体外消化率。昆虫可以作为一种抗菌剂，具有控制各种食源性病原体的潜力。昆虫蛋白是多种生物活性肽的来源，具有多种生物功能。因此，在动物肠道中消化后，昆虫蛋白可以产生具有抗菌特性的肽，可以潜在地解决细菌病原体感染。这主要与日益严重的抗生素耐药性问题有关，这是一个全球关注的问题，促使人们在畜牧生产中寻找抗生素的替代品。本研究将在模拟体外发酵系统中比较不同昆虫衍生产品与大豆的益生元潜力。

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.