Norwegian expert touts insects, maggots as animal feeds

Pigs could be feeding on insects such as maggots and fly larvae by 2020, according to pig feed specialist Mick Hazzledine.

Speaking at the Bpex Innovation Conference 2014, held at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire, Hazzledine explained that using insect protein for pig feed could prove a solution to a number of challenges faced by the industry. black-soldier-fly-larvae

He said: “There’s a lot of research going into it, it’s a serious issue. There’s no doubt some of this insect protein is extremely high-quality. It’s very high in protein and high in fat.

“Insects are part of the diet of two billion people and, in Thailand, there are 20,000 cricket farms. They grow on vegetable matter and with their feed conversion rate, it starts to make you think, ‘Perhaps it’s not that daft this insect farming’.”

He quoted Erik-Jan Lock, from Norway’s National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research, who said: “We throw away 20% of our food. This could be a sustainable source for insect production, which on a global scale could produce three times more protein than current soya protein production.”

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