Available for millions of years but discovered through the last decade: Insects as a source of nutrients and energy in animal diets

The aim of this review is to present and discuss the most recent literature about the processing of insect biomass and its impact on nutritive value, further implementation of meals and fats derived from invertebrates to livestock (poultry and swine), aquaculture (salmonids), and companion animal diets and their impact on growth performance, metabolic response, and gastrointestinal microbiota shifts. Additionally, the most important barriers to obtaining unified products in terms of their nutritive value are considered, i.e., to define insects' nutrient requirements, including various technological groups and further biomass processing (slaughtering, drying, and storage). Due to the current limitation in the insect production process consisting of the lack of infrastructure, there is stress on the relatively small amount of insect products added to the animal diets as a functional feed additive. Currently, only in the case of pet nutrition may insects be considered a full replacement for commonly used environmentally harmful and allergenic products. Simultaneously, the least information has been published on this topic. Thus, more scientific data are needed, particularly when the pet food branch and insect-based diets are rapidly growing. (C) 2022 Chinese Association of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd.

Automated summary

This review aims to provide the latest literature on the processing of insect biomass and its impact on nutritive value. It further discusses the implementation of insect-derived meals and fats in livestock, aquaculture, and companion animal diets, and their effects on growth performance, metabolic response, and gastrointestinal microbiota shifts. The review also addresses the challenges in obtaining unified products in terms of their nutritive value, including defining insects' nutrient requirements and biomass processing. Currently, the limited infrastructure for insect production restricts the use of insect products as functional feed additives in animal diets, with the exception of pet nutrition. More scientific data are needed, particularly as the pet food industry and insect-based diets are rapidly growing.