Promising research with fish on insect diet

Tor-Eddie Fossbakk Early last year Florida-based Neptune Industries contacted Frank Davis, a MSU entomology professor, expressing an interest in mass-producing insects to be used as a sustainable protein source to replace fishmeal in fish and livestock feeds. During his 35 years as an entomologist, Dr. Davis had led a group of scientist who developed a rearing facility to produce pest moth species for corn and cotton research. Upon retiring, he became a member of the MSU faculty and organized the first Insect Rearing Workshop in 2000. According to Delta Farm Press, Neptune Industries was searching for ways to eliminate one of the major bottlenecks in the aquaculture industry — reliance on fishmeal for protein in fish diets. Because many freshwater fish species derive their nutrition from small insects, the company decided to explore this potential source. The company would like to become independent of protein from wild-caught fish and was looking for a source of high-quality protein that can be mass-produced from processing products like fruits, grains, vegetables, and fish and animal waste. After learning about Dr. Davis and his work and visiting MSU, an agreement was signed with the university to research the use of feed made from commercially grown insects to be used as fish feed. First insect species with high amounts of protein that can be economically produced in huge volumes were chosen. Feeding trials with striped bass started early last fall. An external research company was used to conduct and evaluate the trials. It is comparing feed pellets made with fishmeal to pellets made from insects. Early trial results have been very favorable for the insect pellets. The fish seems to have no preference for either of the two types of pellets used. MSU’s Garrison Sensory Evaluation Laboratory evaluated the fish to determine if the insect diet affects the taste, texture or other qualities of the fish. The lab did not find any difference, except that the fillets from fish that had eaten the insect diet did not have a strong fish smell. The next step in this project is to build a pilot production facility for insect based rearing in order to test methods for growing, harvesting and processing.