Development of the fish culture techniques based on a new food circulation system using an insect

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26310310
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 特設分野
• Research Field: Food Cycle Research
• Research Institution: Ehime University
• Principal Investigator: MIURA Takeshi 愛媛大学, 農学研究科, 教授 (00261339)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 三浦 智恵美 広島工業大学, 環境学部, 教授 (90518002) ; 太田 史 愛媛大学, 南予水産研究センター, 助教 (40509311)
• Research Collaborator: IDO Atsushi
• Project Period (FY): 2014-07-18 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 昆虫 / 動物性タンパク / 機能性物質 / 免疫賦活化物質 / 多糖 / 魚類養殖 / イエバエ / カイコ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

With the rapid increase in the world’s population, insects are attracting worldwide attention as new food and feed resources. In this study, we challenged the development of highly functional fish feeds using insect meal that can be expected to be resistant to diseases and have high growth potential. The use of insects for feed material can contribute to the reduction of environmental impact. As a result, we succeeded in the developing technology to replace all animal protein in culture feed with insect meal, the isolation and purification of functional polysaccharides that act on immune activation of animals from dipteran and lepidopteran insects, and the clarifying one of the molecular mechanisms of the functions of insect-derived polysaccharides. These results contribute to the realization of a new sustainable food production model using insects as feed material.

Free Research Field

水族生理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、昆虫の養殖飼料原料としての特徴を明らかにし、実用化の道筋をつけた。また、これまでに知られていなかった昆虫の動物に対する機能を発見し、その原因物質の同定にはじめて成功した。これらの結果は、天然資源に負荷をかけない養殖の実現に大きく貢献でき、養殖の食料生産としての社会的意義を飛躍的に向上させることができる成果であるとともに、将来の食料生産の根本を変革させる原動力となる可能性を秘めている。