Creating a buzz around ‘fly farming’ – Information Centre – Research & Innovation

By Marta Boettcher 6 years ago

EU-funded scientists have delivered new know-how on the artificial mass-rearing of particular species of flies. The findings are specially well timed considering that European laws not too long ago opened the doorway for some farmed fly species to be utilized as feed in the aquaculture sector.


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© Sergio Yoneda #235299032, supply:stock.adobe.com 2020

Flies are a critical section of the ecosystem – they present foods for other animals, pollinate vegetation and recycle organic and natural waste. The potential of these lowly but critical insects has been regarded for some time and a range of species are already staying reared commercially.

Their use in Europe is escalating after an EU Regulation was passed in 2017 allowing the use of insect proteins from a number of fly species – together with the black soldier fly and housefly – as feed in aquaculture. Flies already present a protein supply in some pet foods and could shortly be utilized to feed poultry and pigs.

The EU-funded FLYHIGH challenge has supplied new know-how about the make-up and lifetime cycles of particular fly species. A person key endeavor was to discover the genetic diversity of reared and pure populations of the black soldier fly, which is one particular of the most commercially vital insects globally.

In their DNA

‘We carried out the most comprehensive black soldier fly sampling that we are conscious of and utilized the findings to create a comprehensive library of mitochondrial DNA sequences connected to geographic information,’ says Aino Juslén, challenge coordinator based at the University of Helsinki, Finland. ‘These benefits will be vital to existing and future programmes for the artificial rearing, collection and intensive generation of the black soldier fly.’

The DNA sequences have been uploaded to the publicly obtainable databases GenBank.

Furthermore, the FLYHIGH staff found approaches to improve rearing protocols for particular fly species. Scientists examined how factors this sort of as temperature, humidity and diet can effect on fly growth. As well as the black soldier fly, the challenge assessed rearing procedures for other artificially reared species, together with the housefly and the eco-friendly bottle fly.

As a final result, new larval feeding techniques have been designed and the general performance of particular strains of fly species has been evaluated on unique growth mediums. The increased artificial-rearing protocols for both of those the housefly and eco-friendly bottle fly amplified maggot activity and made flies much more effectively and sustainably.

Spotlight on species

Under laboratory disorders, FLYHIGH also examined the lifetime cycle of flies with unique positions in the foods chain, this sort of as hoverflies and blow flies, together with their near interactions with particular vegetation. Both of those species teams could have applications in pure ecosystems or agricultural environments as plant pollinators or to support decompose organic and natural waste.

‘We documented the distinct prerequisites for each and every examined species group to endure in artificial-rearing disorders and eventually reproduce in captivity,’ describes Juslén.

The challenge gathered information for fly species distributed in Mediterranean ecosystems of South Africa and Europe. New host vegetation have been recorded for some species, this sort of as distinct bulb vegetation like lilies and aloe succulent vegetation. The findings disclosed that the amount of money of ingested pollen for fly survival varied noticeably amongst the examined species.

This challenge was funded via the EU’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie steps programme which supports education of scientists and personnel exchanges. The challenge delivered an active program of know-how transfer via tutorial visits, education programs, fieldwork and scientific seminars.

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