With the rise in global food demand, finding safe ways to reduce agricultural waste is critical. Researchers explored the use of Black Soldier Fly larvae to treat pig and chicken waste. Their study focused on microbial safety, resistance gene transfer, and heavy metal risks.
Why use insects for waste?
Increasing global demand for food is driving the need to reduce waste produced by agriculture to minimise environmental impacts.
Black Soldier Fly, Hermetia illucens, can reduce livestock waste, but research into the safety and scalability of the system is required.
Insect bioconversion concerns include potential bioaccumulation of pathogens, antimicrobial resistance genes and heavy metals in larvae and substrates.
How were insects studied?
Researchers from the University of Leeds, working with insect farming technology company Entocycle carried out research in semi-commercial and lab-scale scenarios.
In the first environment, a semi-commercial-sized insect rearing facility was used to rear larvae on pig slurry, alongside a lab-based experiment using chicken manure.
Insect impact on waste properties
Larval microbiome composition was impacted by substrate, with increased Clostridia in larvae reared on slurry and manure. Pathogens largely decreased in the larvae from starting levels.
Both slurry and manure substrates showed time-related changes regardless of insect presence or absence except for E. coli in chicken manure which was reduced in substrates with larvae added (−2.840 LFC vs −1.168 LFC; p<0.05), suggesting that time-associated alterations in the substrate could be more significant than larval presence.
Potential risks from using insects
Antimicrobial resistance gene changes were dependent on the substrate and gene, with increases found for tetM in chicken manure after larval bioconversion (9.000 vs 10.370 LFC; p<0.001), and for sul2 in larvae reared on chicken manure (3.509 vs −0.985 LFC; p=0.001).
In pig slurry-reared larvae, tetM decreased (−1.578 LFC; p<0.001) but there was no difference in sul2. Heavy metal contents generally met permissible standards for animal feed and organic fertilisers.
However, there was some non-significant evidence for bioaccumulation of cadmium in slurry-reared larvae 0.18 to 0.70 mg/kg) compared to starter larvae (0.25mg/kg) requiring further study.
Who funded the insect research?
The work was supported by an Innovate UK grant, jointly funded by BBSRC as part of the UK Government’s Securing the Future of the UK’s Insect Farming Industry research.
