The use of live insect larvae to improve sustainability and animal welfare of organic chickens production

Project idea is to use organic vegetable waste for feeding insect larvae which are then fed alive to slow growing chicken. Project approach and objectives are well elaborated and very relevant to the project call. Using organic food waste in an efficient way for producing animal feed rich in protein is very relevant in Europe, as some organic protein feed for chicken is produced overseas under often questionable environmental production systems. The project covers many relevant aspects including animal welfare, agronomic possibilities for the use of frass, the use of metagenomics methodologies to assess the role of insect larvae bioactive compounds on chicken gut health-related parameters, and the use of a traditional Italian chicken breed supporting agro-biodiversity. The project with the integrated sustainability assessment tools represents good progress beyond current state of the art. Consortium is interdisciplinary and complementary. Budget is well-justified. Communication and dissemination plans are comprehensive. Little detail is provided on how the mentioned consumer surveys on food habits will be conducted and how the Social Criteria Analysis through the Social Accounting Matrix will be integrated with LCA and LCC analysis. Consumers’ willingness-to-buy and to pay premium prices for the chicken stemming from this special production system is not investigated and a comparison to extant antibiotic- free and soy-free chicken production systems might be advantageous. A problem is that the two trials with different chicken breeds are done in two different years which makes a direct comparison of the breeds’ yields impossible, as compound mixtures of wastes and environmental conditions are subject to change from year to year. All in all, the proposal has a very good potential to reach the expected impact through innovation creation and implementation. It will have aneffective contribution towards sustainable and organic food systems.