Invertebrate Welfare — May 2020

1 trillion to 1.2 trillion insects farmed

• I’ve just completed an estimate of global insects farmed for protein. The total estimated figure from my model, which uses global production tonnage, average weight, and death rates on farms, found that 1 trillion to 1.2 trillion insects are currently farmed for food annually.

  • The estimate is of insects where whole bodies are farmed to be eaten — not including insects like cochineals where an extract is eaten, or bees where a byproduct is consumed.

    • There are likely some terrestrial non-insect invertebrates, such as scorpions, included in this total.

  • Annually, 560 billion to 680 billion insects are sold after slaughter, 180 billion to 230 billion are sold live, and 250 billion to 300 billion otherwise die during the production process.

  • Insects live through a total of 29 trillion to 35 trillion days annually on farms.

  • I’ll be publishing the model, estimates, and notes on insect farming in two pieces over the next few weeks. A somewhat edited draft of the first write-up can be found here.

• There is continued evidence that the industry in Europe and the US is turning toward producing livestock feed, especially fishmeal.

• Beta Hatch, a Washington state based startup, has secured funding to open the largest mealworm production facility in North America to produce aquafeed.

• nextProtein, a French startup, secured funding to scale its production to 100,000 tonnes by 2025 (I estimate current global production of farmed insects to total 60,000 to 65,000 tonnes — and the article incorrectly lists the unit of their goal as imperial tons).

• Researchers and producers continue to turn to food waste as a way to drive down the cost of producing insects.

• Fortunately, price remains a concern for aquaculture companies interested in using insectmeal as a replacement for fishmeal.

450,000 horseshoe crabs bled

• Every year, over 450,000 horseshoe crabs are caught, drained of blood, and released (around 50,000 die from this process).

  • The blood is used to test for contamination in the manufacture of medical equipment and drugs.

• Synthetic alternatives have been available for sometime, but this month, the United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) rejected including these synthetic alternatives in their annual endotoxin testing guidelines for pharmaceutical companies, essentially disincentivizing companies from using synthetic alternatives, as they’ll have to do extra validation work to demonstrate safety were they to use them.

• The Atlantic published an excellent overview of the horseshoe crab bleeding practice in 2018.

• Invertebrates are widely used in medicine, from longstanding practices like bleeding with leeches, to using materials derived from crustaceans.

Oxitec mosquito trials expand across Brazil and the US

• This month, genetically modified mosquito producer Oxitec had several major announcements:

  • The company received the first field permit issued by the EPA for testing GM mosquitoes in Florida and Texas.

    • Sterile male mosquitoes will be released to curb wild populations.

  • The company also conducted its first trial of its new mini-capsule technology in Brazil, which they claim suppressed up to 95% of mosquitoes in trial areas.

    • The capsules are small biodegradable tablets that are given to residents and placed in water.

    • This novel approach for dispersal is both inexpensive and easy for communities to implement.

  • Finally, following the test, the company received biosafety approval from the government of Brazil, allowing them to expand implementation across the country.

• It is plausible that sterile male approaches are overall good for insects — if mosquitoes' lives and deaths are bad, this might be an effective way to reduce populations over the long run without resorting to lethal measures. Since male mosquitoes do not bite, this also does not cause additional mammal suffering from bites or diseases carried by mosquitoes.

Insect advocacy

• A recent literature review in “Current Opinion in Insect Science” found that in the last few years, there has been a gradual increase in popularity of pollinators, and that this offers opportunities for advocacy for insect conservationists.

  • It seems plausible that this may also bode well for some efforts to improve insect welfare.

  • Notably, articles about large bee die-offs are becoming increasingly common, like this one on 60,000 bees killed by pesticides in Ireland.

    • As an aside, the article claims that bees killed by poisons tend to die with their proboscises extended.

  • The abstract of the paper notes, “People now like bees.” This seems good.

Miscellaneous

• A company has developed a potentially less painful way (for the fish) to reduce sea lice — a combination of hydrogen peroxide application and sound.

  • Currently sea lice and infested fish are treated with various poisons, which are frequently deadly for the fish.

  • From their press release, it sounds vaguely like this treatment might be quicker than others at killing sea lice, which might be slightly less bad?

• Researchers in South Korea claim to have found the first clues for farming giant Pacific octopi, which apparently are considered impossible to breed.

  • The article is the only English language source I could find on this.

• The coronavirus lockdown may have massively decreased head lice populations, at least in Israel.