Mosquitoes could be suitable as a nutritious feed for poultry, according to research from Greece.
Scientists based in Thessaloniki caught specimens of three mosquito species (Aedes caspius, Anopheles hyrcanus, and Culex pipiens) in rice fields near the city, and analysed their nutritional profile. They found that they were high in protein, rich in minerals and antioxidants, while containing comparable levels of microbes to food harvested from soil and existing farmed insects such as house crickets and mealworm.
There were some differences between species, with A. hyrcanus having significantly higher protein content (62% based on dry weight) and antioxidant potential then the two others.
Based on the qualities observed, “a value to mosquitoes not considered before” has been highlighted, they wrote in the journal Sustainability. The next step would be to analyse mosquitoes’ performance and safety when fed to poultry.
Exploiting a pest en masse
They noted that mosquitoes for feed could be sourced by capitalising on existing practices. These include the breeding of sterile specimens for use in the Sterile Insect Technique, where sterilised males are released to drive down local populations. Females, not used in this approach, could be repurposed as feed, they said, adding value to the mass-rearing process.
Mass-trapping technologies are also available for the control of mosquitoes, they said, offering the possibility that they could be modified to collect suitable numbers as a feed source, straight from farm environments.
“Mosquitoes are seasonal pests and, realistically, harvesting their populations from the wild for animal feed is not a feasible stand-alone approach, perhaps only for small-scale production,” they concluded.
“Farmed insects could satisfy consistently high feed demands, but harvesting insects could be a complementary, high-value, low-investment strategy for taking advantage of mosquitoes—by-products of intensive agricultural activity—produced massively in agricultural landscapes.”
