• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.61 no.4
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• pp.36.1-36.8
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• 2021

The objective of this study was to evaluate the beneficial effects of the short-term application of insect-based diet in canine allergic dermatitis. Total 19 atopic dogs with concurrent cutaneous adverse food reactions were enrolled and classified into 3 groups. The treatment group (n = 7) was fed insect-based diet, the positive control group (n = 6) was fed salmon-based diet, and the negative control group (n = 6) was fed commercial or homemade diet for 12 weeks. The degree of skin lesions was evaluated based on canine atopic dermatitis extent and severity index (CADESI-4). Additionally, transepidermal water loss (TEWL) and pruritus visual analog scale were evaluated. All indices were evaluated every 4 weeks after the initial administration of hypoallergenic diets. In the treatment group, significant decrease in the CADESI-4 score was observed at 8 weeks compared to the baseline score (p = 0.031). There were significant differences in the CADESI-4 score between the groups at 8 weeks (p = 0.008), 12 weeks (p = 0.012), and TEWL at 12 weeks (p = 0.022). This preliminary result demonstrates the potential hypoallergenicity of an insect-based diet through features that diminish cutaneous lesions and skin barrier dysfunction.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.99-106
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• 2024

Functional foods, introduced in the early 1980s, offer health benefits beyond basic nutrition and are increasingly demanded due to growing consumer awareness of diet-health relationships. This review explores insect-based functional foods, highlighting their nutritional benefits, health implications, and applications. Edible insects, such as crickets, mealworms, and locusts, are rich in protein, healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals, making them a promising solution for food security and sustainability. Insect-based foods contribute to weight management, cardiovascular health, anti-inflammatory properties, gut health, and potential anti-cancer benefits. Despite most insects being low in calcium and potassium, they are high in phosphorus and, to a lesser extent, magnesium. Active components like royal jelly, bee pollen, and extracts from Tenebrio molitor and Periplaneta americana L. have shown potential in osteoporosis prevention by improving bone density and reducing bone resorption. Silk sericin-based functional foods also exhibit preventive and therapeutic effects against bone loss. However, challenges such as regulatory barriers, food safety concerns, consumer acceptance, potential allergenicity, and the need for standardization and quality control must be addressed. This review underscores the potential of insect-based functional foods in enhancing health and well-being, particularly for osteoporosis prevention, and highlights the need for further research and regulatory harmonization to facilitate their adoption.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 2016

Mealworms, Tenebrio molitor (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), are widely used as food sourcefor animal rearing as well as human diet. Conventionally, mealworms raised on wheat bran. In this study, we investigated the effects of brewer's spent grain (BSG) on the growth of mealworm larvae to reduce the rearing cost. We prepared five different diets with various BSG content, 0, 10, 30, 50, and 70% of heated air dried BSG with wheat bran. We compared survivorship, larval weight, developmental duration, pupation rate, and pupal weight of five different groups of T. molitor raised on these five diets. The larval survivorships were almost similar with the control group except a group with 70% of BSG. For the larval weight, groups with 30% and 50% of BSG gained more weight than that with control treatment, 0% of BSG. For the developmental period, the groups with 30% of BSG took less time compared to the control group. In all treatment groups, more than 90% of pupation rate were observed. Especially, the group with 30% of BSG showed highest pupation rate among the five groups. Wheat bran with 30~50% of BSG was the optimal diet for successive insect rearing among the five diet treatments. Based on this study, we concluded that adding BSG to wheat bran helps to improve the quality of T. molitor and to reduce the rearing period.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1109-1117
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• 2020

In order to verify whether Zophobas atratus is an edible insect, the nutrients and harmful substances of Z. atratus larvae reared with an artificial diet (AD) and wheat bran (WB) were compared and analyzed. Based on dry weight, the crude protein content of Z. atratus larvae reared with an AD was 62.4%, 1.4 times higher than that of those reared with WB (45.2%). The crude fat content was 20.5% in the AD group, 2.3 times less than in the WB group (46.3%). The leucine content was 1.4 times higher in the AD group (4.2%) than in the WB group (3.0%). The glutamic acid content of nonessential amino acids was 1.3 times higher in the AD group (7.0%) than in the WB group (5.3%). The oleic acid content was 1.4 times higher in the WB group (37.0%) than in the AD group (26.7%). The potassium content was 1.1 times higher in the AD group (975.9 mg/100 g) than in the WB group (872.9 mg/100 g). According to the results of the toxic substances analysis, the lead and cadmium levels of the WB and AD groups were standard for edible insects. Pathogenic microorganisms, such as E. coli and salmonella, were not detected in either group. According to the results of the present analysis of nutrition and harmful substances, Z. atratus larvae raised on an AD are safe and contain various nutrients. Therefore, such larvae could be useful sources of food and feed.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.62 no.2
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• pp.111-120
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• 2020

The definition of meat analog refers to the replacement of the main ingredient with other than meat. It also called a meat substitute, meat alternatives, fake or mock meat, and imitation meat. The increased importance of meat analog in the current trend is due to the health awareness among consumers in their diet and for a better future environment. The factors that lead to this shift is due to low fat and calorie foods intake, flexitarians, animal disease, natural resources depletion, and to reduce greenhouse gas emission. Currently, available marketed meat analog products are plant-based meat in which the quality (i.e., texture and taste) are similar to the conventional meat. The ingredients used are mainly soy proteins with novel ingredients added, such as mycoprotein and soy leghemoglobin. However, plant-based meat is sold primarily in Western countries. Asian countries also will become a potential market in the near future due to growing interest in this product. With the current advance technology, lab-grown meat with no livestock raising or known as cultured meat will be expected to boost the food market in the future. Also, insect-based products will be promising to be the next protein resource for human food. Nevertheless, other than acceptability, cost-effective, reliable production, and consistent quality towards those products, product safety is the top priority. Therefore, the regulatory frameworks need to be developed alongside.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.101 no.2
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• pp.305-308
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• 2012

The box tree pyralid, Glyphodes perspectalis, was reared on an artificial diet based on dried powder of box tree leaves, Buxus microphylla var. koreana, and INSECTA F-II (Nihon Nosan Co., Ltd) at a ratio of 3:7 (w:w) and analyzed in their developmental characteristics from $1^{st}$ to $4^{th}$ generation. The developmental period of larva reared on artificial diet was longer than that of larva reared on host plant. Significant difference in larval period was also observed between $1^{st}$ and other generation groups. Pupation rate was the highest in $4^{th}$ generation followed by $3^{rd}$, $2^{nd}$, $1^{st}$ and host plant group. Significant difference in pupal period was noted between $1^{st}$ and 3rd generation group. Emergence rate was the highest in $4^{th}$ generation group followed by $3^{rd}$, host plant, $1^{st}$ and $2^{nd}$ generation group. There is a significant difference in male and female size between $1^{st}$ and $4^{th}$ generation group. Our result indicated that stable rearing of box tree pyralid through the year is possible by artificial diet, and the best adaptation to artificial diet was achieved at $4^{th}$ generation.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.342-354
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• 2021

Purpose: Obesity is a serious public health issue for the modern society and is considered a chronic health hazard. There are many surgical and pharmacological approaches to treat obesity. However, various potentially hazardous side effects remain the biggest challenge. Therefore, diets based on foods derived from natural products have gained increasing attention compared to anti-obesity drugs. Recently, research on edible insects as a food source has been a topic of considerable interest in the scientific communities. This study examined the anti-obesity effects of ingesting an edible insect by feeding a high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mouse models with a diet containing Tenebrio molitor larvae powder (TMLP). Methods: Six-week-old female C57BL/6J mice were divided into 4 groups according to treatment: 100% normal diet (ND), 100% HFD (HFD), HFD 99% + TMLP 1% (TMLP), and HFD 97% + TMLP 3% (TMLP 3%). TMLP was added to the HFD for 6 weeks for the latter two groups. Results: Compared to the HFD group, mice in the TMLP group showed weight loss, and micro-computed tomographic imaging revealed that the volume of the adipose tissue in the abdominal area also showed significant reduction. After an autopsy, the fat weight was found to be significantly reduced in the TMLP group compared to the HFD group. In addition, the degree of fat cell deposition in the liver tissue and the size of the adipocytes significantly decreased in the TMLP group. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis for the mRNA expression of adipogenesis-related genes namely CCAAT-enhancer-binding proteins (C/EBP-β, C/EBP-δ), and fatty acid-binding protein 4 (FABP4) showed that the expression levels of these genes were significantly reduced in the TMLP group compared to the HFD group. Serum leptin level also decreased significantly in the TMLP group in the comparison with the HFD group. In addition, total cholesterol, triglyceride, and glucose levels in mouse serum also decreased in the TMLP group. Conclusion: Taken together, our results showed that TMLP effectively inhibited adipocyte growth and reduced body weight in obese mice.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.857-860
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• 2023

We investigated the fecal properties and hemoglobin levels in dogs fed with general canine diets and 7 black soldier fly-based companion canine diets. A total of 16 dogs, including 8 poodles (average weight 2.7±0.5 kg) and 8 bichon frises (average weight 2.0±0.5 kg) were used in this study. The changes in fecal properties of all treatments at 0 weeks and 2 weeks showed no significant differences (p>0.05). However, at 4 weeks, compared to the control group, all black soldier fly-based companion canine diets have an effect on fecal properties (p<0.05). Hemoglobin levels in all treatments were within the normal range. Therefore, feeding black soldier fly-based diets to canines affected the fecal properties and the hemoglobin level was not of clinical concern since it was within the desired reference intervals for healthy canines, indicating that the effect of iron supplementation and anemia prevention was not observed.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.979-986
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• 2016

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of dried mealworm (Tenebrio molitor larva) on growth performance, nutrient digestibility and blood profiles in weaning pigs. A total of 120 weaning pigs ($28{\pm}3days$ and $8.04{\pm}0.08kg$ of body weight) were allotted to one of five treatments, based on sex and body weight, in 6 replicates with 4 pigs per pen by a randomized complete block design. Supplementation level of dried mealworm was 0%, 1.5%, 3.0%, 4.5%, or 6.0% in experimental diet as treatment. Two phase feeding programs (phase I from 0 day to 14 day, phase II from 14 day to 35 day) were used in this experiment. All animals were allowed to access diet and water ad libitum. During phase I, increasing level of dried mealworm in diet linearly improved the body weight (p<0.01), average daily gain (ADG) (p<0.01) and average daily feed intake (ADFI) (p<0.01). During phase II, ADG also tended to increase linearly when pigs were fed higher level of dried mealworm (p = 0.08). In addition, increasing level of dried mealworm improved the ADG (p<0.01), ADFI (p<0.05) and tended to increase gain to feed ratio (p = 0.07) during the whole experimental period. As dried mealworm level was increased, nitrogen retention and digestibility of dry matter as well as crude protein were linearly increased (p = 0.05). In the results of blood profiles, decrease of blood urea nitrogen (linear, p = 0.05) and increase of insulin-like growth factor (linear, p = 0.03) were observed as dried mealworm was increased in diet during phase II. However, there were no significant differences in immunoglobulin A (IgA) and IgG concentration by addition of dried mealworm in the growth trial. Consequently, supplementation of dried mealworm up to 6% in weaning pigs' diet improves growth performance and nutrient digestibility without any detrimental effect on immune responses.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.60-67
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• 2019

The objective of this study was to verify the stability of nutrient composition by using herbal medicine by-products as an alternative food source and to examine the growth effect on Protaeria brevitarsis seulensis larvae. As a result of comparing the nutritional components of food source, crude protein, crude fat, and crude ash content, except crude fiber content, was high in both non-fermented and fermented medicinal herbal by-products. Especially, crude protein content was highest. Cadmium, lead, mercury, and other heavy metals were not detected and thus stability as alternative food was confirmed. The growth comparison based on the feeding sources showed no significant difference between the fermented oak sawdust fed control group and the herbal medicine by-products fed laboratory group from week 1 to week 3. The weight of a 4 week larva was 0.137 g in the control group and 0.671 g in the laboratory group and so began to reveal differences at a significant level (p<0.05). As a result of comparing weights of Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis larvae according to the level of herbal medicine by-product addition, HMB40 recorded the heaviest weight in week 7. Statistical analysis showed that there was no significant difference in each body weights of HMB40 and HMB80 at week 5 (p<0.05). These results indicate that if the shipping date of an edible insect is a third instar larva, it arrives at the time of shipment at week 5. Thus feeding HMB40 and HMB80 at the 5th week is the most effective.