Professor Marcel Dicke of Wageningen University & Research (WUR) in the Netherlands will take on the management of a large, new research project about how insects can be used as animal feed.
This was announced by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The project will be conducted in collaboration with partners, including the University of Groningen, Dutch Food and Safety Authority (NVWA), insect companies, and Rabobank.
On top of the nearly € 3.5 million, the insect sector itself contributed additional funding for the research. The research group will investigate the topics of health, welfare, and intrinsic value in regard to the production of insects. They will also measure the health and welfare of poultry that will be fed the insects and will make an assessment of the economic robustness of the new insect sector.
The interest in using more sustainable feed ingredients is growing, fuelled by the environmental impact of soybean meal and fish meal. This has spurred the research and production of more sustainable feed ingredients such as insect meal.