News & Events
News & Event
Poultrynsect, three new papers has been published!
31/10/2024
Dear readers is a pleasure to announce that three new papers has been published in the framework of the Poultrynsect project. The titles of the publications are the following:
“Dehydrated and live black soldier fly larvae as environmental enrichment in indigenous slow-growing chickens: performance, gut health, and chitinolytic enzyme activity”
“Breaking down barriers: live or dehydrated dietary whole black soldier fly larvae supplementation in slow growing chickens preserve meat quality and sensory traits”
“Unraveling the Chicken Meat Volatilome with Nanostructured Sensors: Impact of Live and Dehydrated Insect Larvae Feeding”
These papers focused on the evaluation of the effects of live and dehydrated black soldier fly larvae (Hermetiaillucens) supplementation on growth parameters and meat quality of slow-growing chickens, reared under organic conditions in the second trial of our project.
Congratulations to all the team members and a special acknowledgments to the first author Dr. Edoardo Fiorilla of the @UNITO team involved in the coordination of this trial!
Both papers are published in Open Access option so freely download by the readers, in alternative a copy could be requested directly contacting the project coordinator Dr. Francesco Gai: francesco.gai@ispa.cnr.it
Poultrynsect, third paper published!
27/05/2024
Dear readers is a pleasure to announce that a third paper titled “Organic medium‐growing chickens fed live black soldier flylarvae: A welfare improvement study” has been finally accepted and published!
This study focused on the evaluation of the effects of live black soldier fly larvae (Hermetia illucens) supplementation on several animal welfare parameters of medium-growing chickens, reared under organic conditions in the first trial of our project.
Congratulations to all the team members and a special acknowledgments to the first author Dr. Valentina Bongiorno of the @Unito team involved in the coordination of this trial!
A copy of the full paper could be requested directly contacting the corresponding author Dr. Marta Gariglio marta.gariglio@unito.it
Poultrynsect at Green ERA-Hub BreakfastClub webinars
23/05/2024
Poultrynsect team leader Francesco Gai @CNR, presented some of the project results at Green ERA-Hub Breakfast Club webinars organized by TEAGASC Ireland.
The full webinar (from minute 2.00 to minute 26.00) could be listen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G4Msn5nuxw
Enjoy the listening!
Poultrynsect project: Final Symposium
27/10/2023
On October 27 the final symposium of the project took place. The event was hosted by Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche in their headquarter in Rome, Italy.
For this occasion the beautiful Marconi Hall was chosen as the official venue. The hall is renowed for its walls decorated by frescoes representing some of the most important Italian scientists known: Archimede, Galileo Galilei, Leonardo Da Vinci and Alessandro Volta just to mention some.
The topics of the event were carefully chosen to give a 360° perspective about insect use in poultry farming, showing the multidisciplinary approach of the project itself:
- Insect rearing: the Black Soldier Fly potential as bioconverter
- Poultry nutrition and the use of the insects as feed in organic farming
- Poultry welfare: the live insect larvae tool
- Poultry gut microbiota: the influence of the live insect larvae administration
- Poultry meat quality and live insect larvae supplementation impact
- Sensorial analysis of the meat from insect-fed chicken
- Consumer opinion about the use of live insect larvae in poultry organic farming
- Sustainability and environmental impact of poultry farms: the insect larvae utilisation could be favourable?
Each of these issues, presented by the WP leaders and colleagues involved, gave the opportunity to provide to the audience with the latest results and pending activities.
The Poultrynsect final symposium has been also attended by 8 students of the “Animal nutrition and feed safety” postgraduate degree (UNITO), giving them the opportunity to have a full immersion on a scientific research project related to insect and poultry science.
The Poultrynsect team would like to thank team members, stakeholders and all people actively involved in the project!
See you on the next project!
Poultrynsect team
Poultrynsect event: Final Symposium
20/09/2023
Curioso di sapere quali siano le applicazioni delle larve di insetto negli allevamenti dei polli da carne? Discuteremo insieme ad esperti europei di insetti, qualità delle carni avicole, consumer science ed impatto ambientale degli allevamenti. Potrai trovare queste ed altre informazioni nell’evento finale del progetto Poultrynsect che si terrà Venerdì 27 Ottobre a Roma. Leggi tutte le informazioni utili nella brochure in allegato.
Curious to know what the applications of insect larvae are in broiler farming? We will discuss about insects, meat quality, consumer opinion and the environmental impact of poultry farming together with European experts. You will be able to find this and other information in the final event of the Poultrynsect project which will be held on Friday, 27th October in Rome. Read all about it on the brochure in attachment.
Poultrynsect at ICOMST Congress 2023
30/08/2023
Additional preliminary results regarding our second in-vivo trial were presented during the 69° International Congress of Meat Science and Technology – ICOMST 2023, from August 20 – 25 in Padua (Italy). Poultrynsect team member Valeria Zambotto (Unito-CNR ISPA), with a poster titled: “Sensory evaluation of breast meat from Bianca di Saluzzo chicken supplemented with live and dried black soldier fly larvae” .
Before taking part to the congress, Valeria was also accepted into the Pre-Congress Graduate Course (18-19/08/2023 – Padova). It was really a great formative opportunity, with an outstanding team of scientists that gave several lectures to the participants.
Second image: group photo of the Pre-Congress graduates and teachers.
Poultrynsect at EAAP Annual Meeting 2023
30/08/2023
Dr. Dusan Ristic, from German Institute of Food Technologies (DIL) team, presented some results of #poultrynsect first trial during the 74th Annual Meeting of EAAP – European Federation of Animal Science in Lyon, France – August 26th / September 1st, 2023.
More results, presentations and publications coming for the second trial as well, so stay tuned!
Congrats Dusan!
Poultrynsect at ESPW Congress 2023
26/06/2023
Last but not least, Dr. Valentina Bongiorno (UNITO Phd student) took part at the XI European Symposium on Poultry Welfare, from 26 to 29 June 2023, in Prague.
She shared with the audience some results of her Phd trial with an engaging presentation titled “What a wonderful worm: live black soldier fly larvae effects on medium-growing chickens’ welfare”. The program of the event was indeed focused on poultry welfare, with talks, short communications and poster presentations, providing time for fruitful interactions between members of industry and academia.
Congratulations Valentina!
Poultrynsect hosted at “Economia circolare in acquacoltura e dintorni” workshop
19/06/2023
Poultrynsect team leader Francesco Gai @CNR was one of the invited speaker at the workshop “Economia circolare in acquacoltura e dintorni” within the launch of the project “New life for Rice by-products and agricultural wastes: Insects bioconversion for Fish Feed production (newRIFF)” funded by the Cariplo Foundation, a project with the aim of use of insect alternative proteins in aquaculture, like Poultrynsect.
In this occasion Francesco shared the results of the first poultry trial with the audience attending the project launching.
NewRIFF is a project coordinated by the Università degli Studi di Milano, involving the Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences of Turin University (DISAFA) and the Institute of Sciences of Food Production of National Research Council ( ISPA – CNR ) as partners. Thanks newRIFF.
Latest Feedbacks on “Uso degli insetti nel settore agricolo ed alimentare: il punto della situazione in Italia” Workshop
29/05/2023
On May 26th Poultrynsect teamed up, with the sister Advagromed and SustavianFeed projects, for the organisation of a brand new event, focused on the actual use of insects in feed&food in Italy.
The morning part of the event counted several live talks, each involving a specialist on the topic, from legislation to novel foods chain:
- Dott.ssa Filomena Maio (Confagricoltura)
- Avv. Dario Dongo (Wiise srl)
- Dott. Riccardo Prato (ASL To3 Piemonte)
- Dott.ssa Carlotta Todaro Fila (Alia Insect Farm srl)
In this occasion, thanks to all the attendees willing to participate, a sensorial analysis was also performed on poultry meat samples from animals fed with different insect meal inclusion levels. The workshop ended with an interesting and lively roundtable, moderated by the journalist Chiara Di Paola (Il Fatto Alimentare), composed by speakers representing different part of the feed&food chain giving us their opinion about insect-derived products potential applications.
It’s worth mentioning that some of Poultrynsect stakeholders took part in this roundtable: BEF Biosystems, BugsLife and Ferrero Mangimi srl. We’re positive that this will be only the beginning of exciting future collaborations and we would like to thank again all the people involved in the organisation and participation to the workshop!
Workshop “Uso degli insetti nel settore agricolo ed alimentare: il punto della situazione in Italia”
24/04/2023
Sei interessato ad allevare insetti in Italia? Curioso di sapere le ultime novità in materia di Novel Food? Potrai trovare queste ed altre informazioni al Workshop “Uso degli insetti nel settore agricolo ed alimentare: il punto della situazione in Italia”che si terrà Venerdi 26 Maggio a Grugliasco (Torino). Leggi tutte le informazioni utili nella brochure in allegato.
Our Workshop “Uso degli insetti nel settore agricolo ed alimentare: il punto della situazione in Italia” (Use of insects in the agricultural and food sector: the situation in Italy) will take place on Friday, 26th May. Read all about it on the brochure.
Poultrynsect, second paper published!
14/12/2022
It’s a pleasure to announce that our paper “Black soldier fly larvae used for environmental enrichment purposes: Can they affect the growth, slaughter performance, and blood chemistry of medium-growing chickens?” has been finally accepted and published!
This study focused on the evaluation of the effects of live black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) (Hermetia illucens) on the growth, slaughtering performance, and blood parameters of medium-growing chickens, the first trial of our project.
Congratulations to all the teams and to the first author Dr. Valentina Bongiorno, our @Unito Phd student, involved in the coordination of this trial!
Click here to download the paper.
Poultrynsect, graduate his second MSc student
30/11/2022
Congratulations to Dr. Eleonora Erika Cappone, one of our @Unito Animal Sciences students, that joined our project and followed our in vivo trials, choosing it as the main topic for her master degree final discussion.
She successfully achieved her degree with a final elaborate titled: “ The use of live insect larvae to improve sustainability and animal welfare in organic chicken production“.
On behalf of the Poultrynsect team, we are more than happy to congratulate with her, wishing all the best for her career!
Ad Maiora!
Poultrynsect, first paper published!
17/11/2022
As promised, more publication about our first trial are on their way. In particular, this study “Eggs or meat? Environmental impact and efficiency assessment of chicken protein production with potential of Hermetia illucens use in feed” from @DIL team members, focused on a life cycle assessment analysis (LCA), comparing laying hen to broiler chicken production.
Sustainability and protein conversion efficiency were also considered, showing promising results for live larve fed animals. Congratulations to our @DIL colleagues for their contribution and effort in such an importan topic like sustainability!
Click here to download the paper.
AMIBA technical visit
28/10/2022
Friday 28th October, we got the chance to meet in person Virginia Ribeiro, our correspondent from AMIBA (Associação dos Criadores de Bovinos de Raça Barrosã), one of the newest Poultrynsect project stakeholders.
Virginia’s work is focused on the preservation and valorisation of autochthonous poultry breeds in her country, the Portugal. Her AMIBA association counts on 4 recognised poultry breeds: Amarela; Branca; Preta Lusitânica; Pedrês Portuguesa.
During a visit to Cascina Losetta, a small free range poultry farm in Piedmont NW Italy, we were able to engage important discussions about biodiversity and the importance of autochthonous breeds products valorisation, along with their market opportunities.
The meeting ended with a delightful tasting of some products of Cascina Losetta, like a typical piedmontese egg-based dessert, Zabaione, made with Bianca di Saluzzo eggs. Thanks to Cascina Losetta and Prof. Joana Nery for this pleaseful experience!
More info about the AMIBA’s vision on local poultry breeds preservation could be read in the interview gave us by Virginia Ribeiro that will be published in our next newsletter issue of December!
For more info about Cascina Losetta history and products click here: https://cascina-losetta.business.site/#summary
From far left to right: Francesco Gai (Poultrynsect project coordinator), Ileana & Ferdinando Trogolo-got (Cascina Losetta owners), Virginia Ribeiro (AMIBA, Portugal), Joana Nery (Professor at the Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Turin, Italy).
LCA_FOOD_2022
12-14/10/2022
Dr. Dusan Ristic from German Institute of Food Technologies (DIL) team present some results of #poultrynsect project at LCA_FOOD_2022 Conference in Lima, Peru with an oral communication titled: “Chicken: from soy and insects to eggs and meat”.
LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA) of Foods conference create a space for the LCA community to share and discuss about their advancements. LCA is currently one of the most commonly used and scientifically robust environmental management tools to determine the environmental profile of products and services. Although its applicability is vast, with notable research in most productive sectors, the agri-food sector has benefited undoubtedly thanks to LCA-related research.
Poultrynsect at INSECTA CONFERENCE 2022
14-16/09/2022
Dr. Francesco Gai (project coordinator) and Dr. Ilaria Biasato attended INSECTA Conference, in Gießen (Germany), in September 14-16, 2022.
The event gathered more than 230 participants from about 30 countries, creating an innovative space to discuss about a great diversity of topics and inspiring keynotes like:
- Insect Rearing and Production Systems
- Insect Processing for Food and Feed
- Safety and Environmental Aspects
- Non-food Application of Insects
INSECTA conference definitely distinguished itself as a key event for the insect farming sector!
Poultrynsect at the 26th World’s Poultry Congress 2022
07-11/08/2022
Livestock, as many agri-food sectors, is also facing major challenges in the near future. The poultry sector is expected to meet the needs of the world population as well, looking for more sustainable production systems able to cope with the growing demand of affordable animal protein.
These were some of the topic discussed at the 26th edition of the World Poultry Congress in Paris, gathering members all over the world, from universities to industries.
Dr. Valentina Bongiorno, on behalf of Poultrynsect, took part to the event with a poster containing more results from our first trial ”BSF live larvae as environmental enrichment in medium-growing chicken diet”.
Congratulations Valentina!
Poultrynsect, graduate his first MSc student
18/07/2022
Congratulations to Dr. @Federico Prai, one of our Unito Veterinary students, that chose our project for his master degree final discussion. He successfully concluded his path as a vet student with his final elaborate titled: “Growth performances and gut health of organic Label Nacked Neck chickens supplemented with Hermetia illucens live larvae“.
On behalf of the Poultrynsect team, we wish the best to Federico for his vet career in the poultry sector!
Poultrynsect at the 4th Insects to Feed the World Conference 2022
12-16/06/2022
Members from CNR, UNITO, DIL and Inagro partners of the multidisciplinary research team of the Poultrynsect project attended the 4th Insects to Feed the World (IFW) Conference 2022 held from 12th to 16th June in Quebec City, Canada, https://www.ifw2020.org/en
IFW is an event, gathering academics and experts from around the world to exchange on the latest advancements in the field of edible insects and entotechnologies. This international conference is a unique opportunity to propel edible insects as an integral part in the future of sustainable agriculture and food systems.
Two oral communications and one poster were presented during the IFW conference by Dr. Valentina Bongiorno, Dr. Beatriz Silva and Dr. Valeria Zambotto, UNITO, DIL and CNR team members, respectively. The communications reported results about growth performance and meat sensorial analysis of a medium growing poultry genotype reared in the first poultry trial carried out during the Autumn 2021.
Congratulations to all! #insect #farming
Poultrynsect at the 7thMediterranean Poultry Summit
08-10/06/2022
At 7thMediterranean Poultry Summit (MPS) held in Cordoba, Spain, http://www.mpn-wpsa.org/spain2020
Dr. Marta Gariglio, DSVUNITO team member, presenting some of our first poultry trial results with a poster titled: “Blood chemistry of medium-growing male and female chickens supplemented with black soldier fly larvae”. Congratulations Marta! #insect #farming
The MPS is one of the main events of the poultry sector in the year 2022. Delegates from all over the Mediterranean area meet every two years to participate in the summit program and get in touch with colleagues.
Mid-term meeting of Poultrynsect project
24/05/2022
#Poultrynsect teams finally meet each other in person, for the mid-term meeting at #DIL headquarter in Quakenbruck, Lowe Saxony in Germany. A fruitful day, full of updates and interesting discussions with all the members.
The meeting was followed by a technical visit to DIL #insectfarm, focused on #Hermetia illucens rearing. During the guided tour Mr. Clemens große Macke, owner of the animal farm Geflügelhof gr. Macke GmbH, explain us insect rearing activities done in collaboration with DIL team members.
Insects in animal feed at NutriFORUM2022
20/04/2022
Prof. Achille Schiavone, principal investigator of the Università degli Studi di Torino (UNITO) team, took part to #NutriFORUM2022 in Lleida (Spain) with the following talk: “Insects in poultry and pig feed: ingredient, supplement or environmental enrichment?”. The large audience and the lively interactions that followed his speech show how this topic never fails to engage discussions and interest around it.
Training internship at INAGRO insect rearing facility
08/03/2022
Dr. Valentina Bongiorno & Dr. Sara Bellezza Oddon, PhD students of the UNITO team, starts their training internship at INAGRO insect rearing facility in Belgium.
Valentina and Sara for the next two months will work side by side with INAGRO insect team in order to learn the latest techniques about insect farming at a semi-industrial level.
Thank you very much @Carl Coudron and @Jonas Claeys for hosting #Poultrynsect students in your facility!
#teamwork #blacksoldierfly #sustainability #susfood #coreorganic
“POULTRYNSECT” workshop
23/11/2021
#Poultrynsect went live with the workshop “POULTRYNSECT: an update on the use of insects as animal feed” held at the AgroVet university campus in Grugliasco, NW Italy.
During the workshop four speakers (3 of them, partners of the project CNR, UNITO and DIL) gave their talks about different aspects of the use of insects as animal feed informing the audience about the recent changes in the European law legislation and the use of LCA as a tool to evaluate the environmental impact of the animal productions.
The workshop was concluded by a speech given by Bugslife founders, an Italian insect producing startup. At the end of the presentations, a lively and animated Q&A session with in presence and on line participants has been successfully developed. The full workshop registration (in English) could be saw at the link below!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wjA–VBnDB8djdaj30QyIwTDxODVetGV/view?usp=drive_web
Poultrynsect at SANA 2021
10/09/2021
Dr. Francesco Gai coordinator of the #poultrynsect project participates at the 33rd international exhibition of organic and natural products SANA 2021, the most important fair trade for business operators and customer of the organic market in Italy, as part of the conference “The future of food: if not now, when?” organized by #ccpb, stakeholder of the project.
EAAP Annual Meeting 2021
01/09/2021
Dr. Dusan Ristic from German Institute of Food Technologies (DIL) team present some of the first results of #poultrynsect at 72nd Annual Meeting of EAAP – European Federation of Animal Science in Davos, Switzerland. More results, presentations and publications coming, so stay tuned!.
Poultrynsect at EAAP Annual Meeting 2021
05/05/2021
Dr. Dusan Ristic member of the German Institute of Food Technologies (DIL) team will give an oral presentation titled: “Environmental impact of feeds utilized for poultry protein productions: soybean vs insect larvae” at the 72nd Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science that will be held from 30th August to 3rd September in Davos, Switzerland.
Talk about local chickens breeds at Due Punti Festival
04/05/2021
Prof. Achille Schiavone, principal investigator of the Università degli Studi di Torino (UNITO) team, gave a talk at the Due Punti Festival a Public engagement initiative, focused on scientific divulgation of Food, Ecosystems and Culture arguments, organized by the Department of Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences in collaboration with the Department of Veterinary Sciences of UNITO.
Achille during her talk explained the importance of the biodiversity of the local poultry breeds and their role in the sustainability of the economy of the small farmers. Among the local poultry breeds reviewed, someone such as the Bianca di Saluzzo or Bionda Piemontese breeds will be investigated during the Poultrynsect project.
The full talk (in Italian) could be listen here:
https://www.facebook.com/duepuntifestival/videos/965907067283649
Poultrynsect meet the poultry chain stakeholders
12/04/2021
A webinar was held with the aim of making the Poultrynsect project known to the Italian public. The web meeting (“Poultrynsect incontra gli stakeholders della Filiera Avicola”) was very successful, bringing the public and the Italian researchers closer to the topics of the project.
The presentation of the poultry breeds useful to biological production and their welfare, the role of the sensorial analyses in the valorization of the biological poultry meat, together with the sustainability of these productions were the main themes of the webinar.
The public was really interested in these issues, since there is in general and increasing attention by the consumers to animal welfare, biological productions and climate changes. Indeed, from a short questionnaire proposed to the audience, a great interest emerged on animal welfare, insects rearing, and environmental sustainability.
Poultrynsect SF/CO kick-off meeting
23/02/2021
The Poultrynsect project was presented within the 12 research projects selected for funding by the ERA-NET SUSFOOD2 and CORE Organic Call Board. During this kick-off meeting Dr. Francesco Gai coordinator of the project and member of the CNR team gave a pitch illustrating the aims and the scopes of the project that were summarized in a graphical abstract readable in a easy way for the participants attending the on line meeting.
Poultrynsect kick-off meeting
11/01/2021
The Poultrynsect project kick-off meeting took place on 11th January 2021. The kick-off agenda started with an introduction to the Poultrynsect project, followed by the description of the Work Packages (WPs) related to insect rearing, poultry trials, laboratory and sensorial analyses, economic and environmental sustainability assessments.
The discussion between the partners was very fruitful and possible solutions about potential critical issues has been proposed. A future meeting, discussing the advancement of the project, has been planned for the month of June 2021.
