Effect of Probiotics on Tenebrio molitor Larval Development and Resistance against the Fungal Pathogen Metarhizium brunneum

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Documents

  • Fulltext

    Final published version, 710 KB, PDF document

In recent years, the yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor L.) has demonstrated its potential as a mass-produced edible insect for food and feed. However, challenges brought on by pathogens in intensive production systems are unavoidable and require the development of new solutions. One potential solution is the supplementation of probiotics in the insect’s diet to obtain the double benefits of improved growth and enhanced immune response. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of diet-based probiotic supplementation on T. molitor larval survival, growth, and resistance against a fungal pathogen. Three probiotic strains, namely Pediococcus pentosacceus KVL-B19-01 isolated from T. molitor and two commercialized strains for traditional livestock, Enterococcus faecium 669 and Bacillus subtilis 597, were tested. Additionally, when larvae were 9 weeks old, a pathogen challenge experiment was conducted with the fungus Metarhizium brunneum. Results showed that both P. pentosaceus and E. faecium improved larval growth and larval survival following fungal exposure compared to the non-supplemented control diet. Since B. subtilis did not improve larval performance in terms of either development or protection against M. brunneum, this study suggests the need for further research and evaluation of probiotic strains and their modes of action when considered as a supplement in T. molitor‘s diet.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1114
JournalInsects
Volume13
Issue number12
Number of pages12
ISSN2075-4450
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.

    Research areas

  • disease, immune response, mealworm, probiotics, production

Number of downloads are based on statistics from Google Scholar and www.ku.dk


No data available

ID: 330885565