Protein from waste: sustainable insect farming for high-quality livestock feed

Project Overview

Regenerating protein from waste: improving harvesting in sustainable insect farming for protein feed

By promoting sustainable protein alternatives to conventional protein sources in animal feed, this project supports resilient food systems that can meet the needs of growing populations while mitigating the impacts of climate change. 

By feeding on waste materials, housefly larvae can be used to regenerate protein as a feed ingredient for livestock and aquaculture production. However, losses during larvae harvesting present a bottleneck in efficient biomanufacturing of housefly larvae. Attempts to scale up production of housefly larvae have resulted in significant losses and emergence of a large number of flies from the refuse. This project aims to address important knowledge gaps and develop a sustainable waste recycling paradigm for housefly larvae production. 

We have focused on the “wandering stage” of larval development when larvae explore optimal sites for pupation – when larvae enter the pupal stage before transforming into flies. We sought to manipulate larvae into choosing pupation sites at harvesting locations using sensory stimulants, especially scent and sound. We built a maze setup and inserted olfactory stimuli – both synthetic geosmin (a compound produced by certain types of algae and soil bacteria, among others), and beet shavings (a more complex organic material that also contains geosmin). We also tested the effect of different sound frequencies on larval migration responses. 

The Impacts

Housefly larvae showed no evidence of response to geosmin or beet shavings and minimal response to acoustic inputs. Larvae became quickly conditioned to audible inputs, indicating a low likelihood that this could be an effective harvesting approach. However, in the course of these studies, we observed that, unrelated to the stimuli being tested, the wandering larvae exhibited a strong negative response to visible light. Larvae preferred to enter small (approximately 5 millimeters wide), dark spaces. These results provide direction for future investigations aimed at uncovering behaviors that could improve larval harvesting systems. 

Recycling organic waste into high-quality protein has the potential to reduce the environmental footprint of animal agriculture. This approach not only diverts waste from landfills, but also reduces reliance on traditional feed sources, such as fishmeal and soy, which are resource-intensive and environmentally impactful.

profile photo of vimal selvaraj

Principal Investigator

Vimal Selvaraj

Project Details

  • Funding Source: Hatch
  • Statement Year: 2024
  • Status: Completed project
  • Topics: livestock, feed, protein, nutrition, sustainability 

Cornell Unit

Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences