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

Flies are a essential component of the ecosystem – they present meals for other animals, pollinate crops and recycle organic and natural waste. The likely of these lowly but essential bugs has been regarded for some time and a amount of species are already currently being reared commercially.

Their use in Europe is increasing after an EU Regulation was passed in 2017 permitting the use of insect proteins from several 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 quickly be utilised to feed poultry and pigs.

The EU-funded FLYHIGH job has furnished new know-how about the make-up and everyday living cycles of selected fly species. 1 critical endeavor was to take a look at the genetic range of reared and natural populations of the black soldier fly, which is a person of the most commercially important bugs worldwide.

In their DNA

‘We carried out the most extensive black soldier fly sampling that we are mindful of and utilised the findings to generate a extensive library of mitochondrial DNA sequences connected to geographic details,’ says Aino Juslén, job coordinator based at the College of Helsinki, Finland. ‘These outcomes will be important to latest and foreseeable future programmes for the artificial rearing, variety and intense creation of the black soldier fly.’

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

Furthermore, the FLYHIGH staff found means to increase rearing protocols for selected fly species. Scientists examined how factors these types of as temperature, humidity and diet program can impact on fly development. As properly as the black soldier fly, the job assessed rearing processes for other artificially reared species, together with the housefly and the environmentally friendly bottle fly.

As a consequence, new larval feeding methods have been produced and the overall performance of selected strains of fly species has been evaluated on various development mediums. The enhanced artificial-rearing protocols for both the housefly and environmentally friendly bottle fly elevated maggot exercise and manufactured flies a lot more proficiently and sustainably.

Highlight on species

Underneath laboratory circumstances, FLYHIGH also studied the everyday living cycle of flies with various positions in the meals chain, these types of as hoverflies and blow flies, together with their shut associations with selected crops. Both equally species groups could have programs in natural ecosystems or agricultural environments as plant pollinators or to assistance decompose organic and natural waste.

‘We documented the precise needs for each studied species team to endure in artificial-rearing circumstances and ultimately reproduce in captivity,’ points out Juslén.

The job gathered details for fly species dispersed in Mediterranean ecosystems of South Africa and Europe. New host crops were recorded for some species, these types of as precise bulb crops like lilies and aloe succulent crops. The findings revealed that the volume of ingested pollen for fly survival diverse considerably between the studied species.

This job was funded through the EU’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions programme which supports instruction of scientists and employees exchanges. The job sent an energetic program of know-how transfer through tutorial visits, instruction programs, fieldwork and scientific seminars.