An Exploration on Greenhouse Gas and Ammonia Production by Insect Species Suitable for Animal or Human Consumption

Background Greenhouse gas (GHG) production, as a cause of climate change, is considered as one of the biggest problems society is currently facing. The livestock sector is one of the large contributors of anthropogenic GHG emissions. Also, large amounts of ammonia (NH3), leading to soil nitrification and acidification, are produced by livestock. Therefore other sources of animal protein, like edible insects, are currently being considered. Methodology/Principal Findings An experiment was conducted to quantify production of carbon dioxide (CO2) and average daily gain (ADG) as a measure of feed conversion efficiency, and to quantify the production of the greenhouse gases methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) as well as NH3 by five insect species of which the first three are considered edible: Tenebrio molitor, Acheta domesticus, Locusta migratoria, Pachnoda marginata, and Blaptica dubia. Conclusions/Significance Editor: Immo A. Copyright: © 2010 Oonincx et al. Introduction Table 1. 2.2 Diet

Production and processing of insects for transformation into protein meal for fish and animal diets - Papadoyianis, Ernest D. This non-provisional patent application is based on provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/847,600 filed on Sep. 27, 2006. 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to methods for producing a protein meal and more particularly to methods for controlled cultivation of insects to be transformed into a protein meal. 2. Commercial animal diets are based on protein as the primary ingredient. In 2005, the U.S. produced 255 million metric tons of fishmeal and imported another 60 million metric tons. Of these commercial feeds, aquaculture (the controlled production of fish, shellfish, and other aquatic animals and plants) is clearly dependent upon fishmeal as a primary dietary ingredient in most commercially milled diets. Within the aquaculture industry, one of the highest priority research topics has been finding a suitable replacement for fishmeal. FIG. 1 is a general diagram showing the sequence of steps of the insect meal production method of the present invention; a. b. c.