New feed ingredients: the insect opportunity

Figures & data

Figure 1. Trend lines for feed-conversion rates for several farmed animals. X-axis = year; y-axis = feed-conversion rate (kg feed/kg body weight gain).

Table 1. Feed-conversion rates for a series of farmed animals.

Animal (group)	Rate	Comment	Reference
Beef cattle	12.7	Average US feed requirements	Smil (2002)
	8.8	Cereal diet	Wilkinson (2011)
	6 (4.5–7.5)		Shike (2013)
Pig	5.9	Average US feed requirements	Smil (2002)
	4.0		Wilkinson (2011)
	3.3		Pârvu et al. (2011)
	3.46–4.09	Increase while growing	Stender (2012)
Sheep, lamb	4 to > 6	Depending on food quality	Fahmy et al. (1992)
Poultry, broiler	2.3	Average US feed requirements	Smil (2002)
	2.3		Wilkinson (2011)
	1.6, 1.8	USA, Brazil	Best (2011)
Poultry, laying hen	3.8	Average US feed requirements	Smil (2002)
	2	330 eggs/year	Best (2011)
Carp	1.5	Average US feed requirements	Smil (2002)
House cricket	1.7		Collavo et al. (2005)
	1.3/1.8	Poultry feed/food waste	Lundy and Parelli (2015)
	2.3/3.2–10.0	Control/artificial diets	Oonincx et al. (2015)
Black soldier fly	1.8/1.4–2.6	Control/artificial diets	Oonincx et al. (2015)
Argentinean cockroach	2.7/1.5–2.3	Control/artificial diets	Oonincx et al. (2015)
Yellow mealworm	4.1–4.8/3.8–6.1	Control/artificial diets	Oonincx et al. (2015)

Table 2. Overview of the analysis of a sample containing 1% grasshopper meal.

Type of material found by participant	Number of reports (%)
Insect	5 (10%)
Krill, Crustacea or chitin	5 (10%)
Muscle	16 (31%)
Not found	16 (31%)
Other (incorrect reports)	10 (18%)

Note: Number of participants = 52.

Source: Raamsdonk et al. (2014).

Appendix A: Brief selection of some major animal groups.

Phylum	Class	Animal groups	Estimated number of species
Annelida		Ring worms (earth worms), leeches	15,000
Mollusca		Bivalves, clams, snails, squids	81,000
Arthropoda	Insecta (Hexapoda)	Beetles, butterflies, flies and mosquitoes, bees and ants, silkworms etc.	950,000
	Crustacea (Decapoda)	Lobsters and crabs, shrimps, krill	40,000
	Arachnida	Spiders, scorpions	98,000
Echinodermata		Starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers	7000
Vertebrata	Fish	Salmon, tuna, cod etc.	30,700
	Amphibia	Frogs, salamanders	6347
	Reptilia	Snakes, lizards, turtles, crocodiles	8734
	Aves	Fowls (poultry p.p.), birds of ducks, geese, prey, gulls, ostrich etc.	9990
	Mammalia	Angulates (ruminants, pigs, camels, deer, elk), horses, rodents, carnivores (dogs, cats, fur animals, whales) etc.	5488

Source: Vié et al., (2009). See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal.

Appendix B: Relevant definitions in Regulation (EC) 68/2013: feed catalogue.

9.1.1	Animal by-products	Whole or parts of warm-blooded land animals, fresh, frozen, cooked, acid treated or dried
9.4.1	Processed animal protein	Product obtained by heating, drying and grinding whole or parts of warm-blooded land animals from which the fat may have been partially extracted or physically removed
9.16.1	Terrestrial invertebrates	Whole or parts of terrestrial invertebrates, in all their life stages, other than species pathogenic to humans and animals; with or without treatment such as fresh, frozen, dried

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