Investigation of fly larvae Lucilia Caesar application in pet feed composition
¹ITMO University, Faculty of Food Biotechnologies and Engineering, Lomonosov street 9, RU191002 Saint-Petersburg, Russia
²Zooprotein LLC, Soviet street 64, RU398042 Lipetsk, Russia
*Correspondence: l_tochka@itmo.ru
Abstract:
The biomass of insect larvae is world-widely used as a valuable raw material for the pharmaceutical, microbiological, cosmetic industry and feeding production, also in the food industry. There is certain complex technology for processing biomass of insect larvae, which affords to isolate many physiologically active substances – chitin, antimicrobial peptides, fatty acids mixture, organic forms of mineral substances, hormones, etc.
The company New Biotechnology (Lipetsk, Russia) has developed a technical process for producing of the protein-lipid preparation (commercial name is Zooprotein) based on the fly larvae of the species Lucilia Caesar. The utilization of food waste as a substrate, unpretentiousness to cultivating environment and high protein content are capable of considering insects of the species Lucilia Caesar as a promising object of cultivation and a reliable, cheap, replenishable source of nutrients for resource-saving process of the feed production.
On the bases of ITMO University, an investigation is being conducted on the qualitative composition of the Zooprotein and the possibility of pet feed application. Cats are the most demanding animals to the quantitative and qualitative composition of protein fractions of feed. In present research an evidence-based calculation of the balance of the Zooprotein composition is presented as a feed component for cats during growth. Accordingly, the unique chemical composition of the development product based on fly larvae Lucilia Caesar makes possible to maintain that it is a promising functional ingredient in feeding rations for various animal species.
Key words:
amino acids, energy, fatty acids, feed production, fly larvae, Lucilia Caesar, nutrients, pets, protein sources, protein-lipid preparation, raw materials