Companies and researchers are in close collaboration developing a container- based system for cultivating fly larvae at organic poultry farms. In a one week process, manure will be converted to compost and the live larvae will be harvested and used for feeding laying hens. The larvae are expected to have a beneficial effect on the growth performance, intestinal health and on animal behavior in flocks

Bjerrum, Lotte

Fischer, Christian Holst

Nordentoft, Steen

Organic Eprints

2/2013 14In the Organic RDD project ”BIOCONVAL” (biological conversion to value), Danish Technological Institute, DTU Food (National Food Institute), Aarhus University and the Knowledge Centre for Agriculture (Poultry) are cooperating with the Danish companies EWH BioProdu-ction and Farmergødning and the Dutch company Dorset Green Machines as well as an organic Danish egg producer. The aim is to develop and demonstrate an integrated system for cultivating fly larvae (Musca domestica) in poultry manure locally at the farms, and subsequently to use them as dietary sup-plement for the hens. The fly larva is very nutritious and is a natural food source for poultry. It has an amino acid composition that is similar to fishmeal and is especially rich on the essen-tial amino acids methionine and Cysteine. Among laying hens, the lack of methionine may lower the production and may possibly lead to feather picking and canni-balism, a problem often seen in organic farming. Feeding live larvae could help overcome these pro-blems, and additionally is hypothesized to increase gut health and animal wel-fare and behavior.  Cultivation in manure The larvae have an ama-zing ability to convert fresh manure to compost in very short time. Before they pupate they empty their intestine, allowing clean larvae to be collected and the remaining compost to be used as valuable fertili-zer. However, many factors influence the cultivation of high-quality larvae, e.g. the compost temperature, the dosage of fly eggs, humidity in the substrate etc. There-fore, a number of prototype tests have been carried out at Danish Technological In-stitute in order to optimize the system before it can be used at the chicken farm and supply the hens with fresh larvae. The solutions have now been implemented in a machine from the Dutch company Dorset Green Machines. The company has already developed equip-ment for manure treatment and part of this technique has been used in a new container system for larvae cultivation.The final concept in the BIO-CONVAL project will -after a test period -be demon-strated at an organic farm located near Brande. Dietary and behavioral impact of larvae feedingBefore implementation on the farm an 8 week compre-hensive feeding trial will be conducted in May-June at the research stables at AU Foulum. In the study, larval meal as a protein source will be evaluated against fishmeal, and furthermore a group of layers will also receive fresh larvae grown on manure. Here the impact of larvae feeding on growth and gutflora composition will be investigated, as well as behavioral studies including feather picking and cannibalism. In earlier experiments we have obser-ved that chickens are very ArticlesLarvae for layers Companies and researchers are in close colla-boration developing a container- based system for cultivating fly larvae at organic poultry farms. In a one week process, manure will be con-verted to compost and the live larvae will be harvested and used for feeding laying hens. The larvae are expected to have a beneficial effect on the growth performance, intestinal health and on animal behavior in flocks. By Lotte Bjerrum1, Christian Holst Fischer1 and Steen Nordentoft21) Danish Technological Institute, Division of Life science;  2) Technical University of Denmark, National Food Institute.Fly larvae on an electronic scales.2/2013 15Articlesinterested in searching and eating insects. Microbiological safetyAs the fly larvae are de-veloped in poultry manure, which contains a lot of bacteria, it is also important to ensure that the larvae do not contribute to propagate and transfer infectious mat-ter from the manure to the hens. In previous studies, the larvae have been heat-treated or made into larvae meal in order to avoid trans-fer of infections. However, in order to stimulate the hens as much as possible they have to be served to the hens alive and fresh. To ensure that the hens are not exposed to any risk from enteric pathogens as Salmo-nella or E. coli, researchers from DTU Food (National Food Institute) are investi-gating how the decompo-sition of the manure by the larvae influences pathogenic bacteria. The results of these stu-dies are very promising as the larva increases the natu-ral inactivation of the tested pathogens in the manure and inside the larvae itself. Against the EU feedstuff legislation Although organic layers already eats a lot of natural insects in the free range stables, the use of insects for feeding animals are not al-lowed in the EU. As a remi-niscence of the BSE outbreak in the early nineties, strict rules are regulating which sources that may be used for feed and for the mo-ment insects are not among these. There is an increasing demand for lifting this ban on insects, and one of the purposes of this project is to show that fly larvae are safe to use as a feed. It is therefore encouraging that processed fly larvae will be allowed for feeding framed fish in the EU in 2013. We see this as an important step in the right direction.PerspectivesLarvae bioconversion sy-stems have been proposed as a high quality, efficient and sustainable protein source used as feed or as a direct food source for both animals and humans. Poultry manure is just one of many possible substrates that larvae can convert into high-value protein. Today, large amounts of household and industrial waste are solely used for energy pur-poses, but protein of higher value could be extracted before the rest is used for energy.Large scale production of larvae requires however a very high amount of fly-eggs, because the weight of each larvae is small. In order to propagate larvae bioconversion the produ-ction of fly-eggs must be automated and made more efficient. This aspect will be further examined in by the project group in the near future.Organic hens More informationRead more about the Organic RDD project EcoServe at: http://www.icrofs.dk/Sider/Forsk-ning/organicrdd_biocon-val.htmlOrganic RDD is financed by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fishe-ries and coordinated by ICROFS.Thousands of fly-eggs  The BioConVal consortium consists of: E.W.H. Bioproduction Aps (www.bioproduction.dk); produce and deliver fly eggs for the projectDorset Green Machines B.V. (www.dorset.nu); design and production of container for the larvae productionFarmergødning (www.farmergoedning.dk ); composting experiments, organic fertilizer expert  Organic egg producer Jan Volmar; on farm trial with larvae feeding of organic layersTechnical University of Denmark, National Food institute (www.food.dtu.dk); laboratory infection models, risk evaluation, feed trial and gutflora studies  Knowledge Centre for Agriculture (www.vfl.dk); design of farm trial, feed formulation, welfareAarhus University, Institute for Animal Science- Immunology and mi-crobiology (www.agrisci.au.dk ); larvae feed trial, production data Danish Technological Institute (www.teknologisk.dk); optimization of production and isolation of larvae, project management     

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Larvae for layers

Online Research Database In Technology

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Downloaded from orbit.dtu.dk on: Dec 19, 2017Larvae for layersBjerrum, Lotte; Fischer, Christian Holst; Nordentoft, SteenPublished in:ICROFS newsPublication date:2013Document VersionPublisher's PDF, also known as Version of recordLink back to DTU OrbitCitation (APA):Bjerrum, L., Fischer, C. H., & Nordentoft, S. (2013). Larvae for layers. ICROFS news, 2013(2), 14-15.2/201314In the Organic RDD project ”BIOCONVAL” (biological conversion to value), Danish Technological Institute, DTU Food (National Food Institute), Aarhus University and the Knowledge Centre for Agriculture (Poultry) are cooperating with the Danish companies EWH BioProdu-ction and Farmergødning and the Dutch company Dorset Green Machines as well as an organic Danish egg producer. The aim is to develop and demonstrate an integrated system for cultivating fly larvae (Musca domestica) in poultry manure locally at the farms, and subsequently to use them as dietary sup-plement for the hens. The fly larva is very nutritious and is a natural food source for poultry. It has an amino acid composition that is similar to fishmeal and is especially rich on the essen-tial amino acids methionine and Cysteine. Among laying hens, the lack of methionine may lower the production and may possibly lead to feather picking and canni-balism, a problem often seen in organic farming. Feeding live larvae could help overcome these pro-blems, and additionally is hypothesized to increase gut health and animal wel-fare and behavior.  Cultivation in manure The larvae have an ama-zing ability to convert fresh manure to compost in very short time. Before they pupate they empty their intestine, allowing clean larvae to be collected and the remaining compost to be used as valuable fertili-zer. However, many factors influence the cultivation of high-quality larvae, e.g. the compost temperature, the dosage of fly eggs, humidity in the substrate etc. There-fore, a number of prototype tests have been carried out at Danish Technological In-stitute in order to optimize the system before it can be used at the chicken farm and supply the hens with fresh larvae. The solutions have now been implemented in a machine from the Dutch company Dorset Green Machines. The company has already developed equip-ment for manure treatment and part of this technique has been used in a new container system for larvae cultivation.The final concept in the BIO-CONVAL project will -after a test period -be demon-strated at an organic farm located near Brande. Dietary and behavioral impact of larvae feedingBefore implementation on the farm an 8 week compre-hensive feeding trial will be conducted in May-June at the research stables at AU Foulum. In the study, larval meal as a protein source will be evaluated against fishmeal, and furthermore a group of layers will also receive fresh larvae grown on manure. Here the impact of larvae feeding on growth and gutflora composition will be investigated, as well as behavioral studies including feather picking and cannibalism. In earlier experiments we have obser-ved that chickens are very ArticlesLarvae for layers Companies and researchers are in close colla-boration developing a container- based system for cultivating fly larvae at organic poultry farms. In a one week process, manure will be con-verted to compost and the live larvae will be harvested and used for feeding laying hens. The larvae are expected to have a beneficial effect on the growth performance, intestinal health and on animal behavior in flocks. By Lotte Bjerrum1, Christian Holst Fischer1 and Steen Nordentoft21) Danish Technological Institute, Division of Life science;  2) Technical University of Denmark, National Food Institute.Fly larvae on an electronic scales.2/201315Articlesinterested in searching and eating insects. Microbiological safetyAs the fly larvae are de-veloped in poultry manure, which contains a lot of bacteria, it is also important to ensure that the larvae do not contribute to propagate and transfer infectious mat-ter from the manure to the hens. In previous studies, the larvae have been heat-treated or made into larvae meal in order to avoid trans-fer of infections. However, in order to stimulate the hens as much as possible they have to be served to the hens alive and fresh. To ensure that the hens are not exposed to any risk from enteric pathogens as Salmo-nella or E. coli, researchers from DTU Food (National Food Institute) are investi-gating how the decompo-sition of the manure by the larvae influences pathogenic bacteria. The results of these stu-dies are very promising as the larva increases the natu-ral inactivation of the tested pathogens in the manure and inside the larvae itself. Against the EU feedstuff legislation Although organic layers already eats a lot of natural insects in the free range stables, the use of insects for feeding animals are not al-lowed in the EU. As a remi-niscence of the BSE outbreak in the early nineties, strict rules are regulating which sources that may be used for feed and for the mo-ment insects are not among these. There is an increasing demand for lifting this ban on insects, and one of the purposes of this project is to show that fly larvae are safe to use as a feed. It is therefore encouraging that processed fly larvae will be allowed for feeding framed fish in the EU in 2013. We see this as an important step in the right direction.PerspectivesLarvae bioconversion sy-stems have been proposed as a high quality, efficient and sustainable protein source used as feed or as a direct food source for both animals and humans. Poultry manure is just one of many possible substrates that larvae can convert into high-value protein. Today, large amounts of household and industrial waste are solely used for energy pur-poses, but protein of higher value could be extracted before the rest is used for energy.Large scale production of larvae requires however a very high amount of fly-eggs, because the weight of each larvae is small. In order to propagate larvae bioconversion the produ-ction of fly-eggs must be automated and made more efficient. This aspect will be further examined in by the project group in the near future.Organic hens More informationRead more about the Organic RDD project EcoServe at: http://www.icrofs.dk/Sider/Forsk-ning/organicrdd_biocon-val.htmlOrganic RDD is financed by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fishe-ries and coordinated by ICROFS.Thousands of fly-eggs The BioConVal consortium consists of: E.W.H. Bioproduction Aps (www.bioproduction.dk); produce and deliver f ly eggs for the projectDorset Green Machines B.V. (www.dorset.nu); design and production of container for the larvae productionFarmergødning (www.farmergoedning.dk ); composting experiments, organic fertilizer expert  Organic egg producer Jan Volmar; on farm trial with larvae feeding of organic layersTechnical University of Denmark, National Food institute (www.food.dtu.dk); laboratory infection models, risk evaluation, feed trial and gutf lora studies  Knowledge Centre for Agriculture (www.vf l.dk); design of farm trial, feed formulation, welfareAarhus University, Institute for Animal Science- Immunology and mi-crobiology (www.agrisci.au.dk ); larvae feed trial, production data Danish Technological Institute (www.teknologisk.dk); optimization of production and isolation of larvae, project management     

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Larvae for layers

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