Research to help insect farming

The black soldier fly that converts organic waste into biomass. The cricket that brings crunch and protein to the plate. The mealworm which has thepotential to degrade plastic.

Long relegated to wild nature, insects are today the subject of intensive breeding, in the same way as certain animals. In Quebec as elsewhere, different species are produced for their nutritional or ecological potential and are often presented as future solutions to ethical and environmental issues.

But behind this enthusiasm lie more complex realities. Like all animal production, insect breeding faces health, technical and economic challenges that are still largely underestimated.

Noting the lack of guidelines in Quebec regarding this type of breeding, a multidisciplinary research team from the University of Montreal became interested in the biosecurity of these relatively new productions.

More precisely, in a newstudy, Guillaume Saint-Jacques, then a bachelor's student in biological sciences, joined forces with Marie-Odile Benoit-Biancamano, professor at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, and Colin Favret, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, to analyze the bacterial resistance of different strains of mealworms.