Arthropods are also a harm for animal feed

Arthropods and stored feed:

A real challenge

Harmful arthropods that attack stored feed (compound feed, grains, cereals) are a real issue for farmers and feed manufacturers. Among the most important pests: Tenebrio molitor (mealworm) which attacks cereals, or Tribolum castaneum, another major pest. On the mites side: Acarus siro is found mainly in cereals and flours of temperate regions, and Tyrophagus putrescentiae is considered as a stored products pest. Difficult to find with the naked eye, mites also hide in feed factories and plants. We can also mention the Sarcophaga sp. fly, a vector, among others, of the ovine myiasis.

The impact may be severe on insect-infested feed: loss of material, faecal contamination, bacterial infection, spread of fungi in the feed, in turn responsible for the production of mycotoxins… Acari, from their side, are responsible for changes in the feed’s biochemical composition: reduction of sugar or protein content, which contributes to degrading the feed’s nutritional value.

How to manage

Feed insect pests?

Chemicals, widely used until now, have shown their limits: impact on environment and health, resistance, etc. Pesticides are thus regularly put on the spot because of their neurotoxic effects on the development of the human nervous and endocrine systems. The repeated use of insecticides and acaricides also produces resistance phenomena demonstrated by several research studies.

Faced with these challenges, alternatives exist: new and less toxic products, bio-rational approaches favoring the control of pest populations and use of plant extracts. Plants are indeed traditionally used since ancient times in China, for example. They continue to be so in some areas, such as India or Pakistan, where neem leaves are used to protect cereal. Safer for the environment, plant extracts also have low toxicity for mammals.