Black soldier fly larvae (BSF) can replace soybean meal (SBM) as protein source in the diet for growing pigs. That was discovered by a multidisciplinary research team of Wageningen University and Research (WUR) and Leiden University, the Netherlands.
There is increasing pressure against the use of SBM as a source of dietary protein source in animal feed, as cultivating SBM requires cropland that could also be used to grow food crops. BSF is potentially a more suitable and sustainable protein source, as it can be grown on waste and residual streams from food production.
Trials
The researchers studied two groups of growing pigs. One group was fed a diet with regular soybean meal as a protein source. The other group was fed a diet with BSF larvae as the protein source.