Netherlands: Fly larvae can replace soybean meal in pigs

Interest in insects as food and feed has increased dramatically over the last decade. Black soldier fly larvae are potentially a more suitable and sustainable protein source as they can be grown on waste and residual streams from food production, say the researchers at Wageningen University and Research and Leiden University in the Netherlands. They conducted a trial to determine the effect on pigs fed black soldier fly larvae compared to soybean meal. Pig Progress spoke to lead researcher, Dr Soumya Kanti Kar, gut performance and animal health scientist at Wageningen Livestock Research, to find out more about the trial and what was discovered. A trial in growing pigs The feeding trial was conducted with 2 groups of growing pigs. One group was fed a diet with regular soybean meal as a protein source, while the other was fed a diet with black soldier fly larvae as the protein source. Data from the trial were gathered on the microbiota of the small intestine and metabolites in the ...