Project

Contact: PD Dr. rer. nat. habil. Björn Kuhla, Dr. sc. agr. Gürbüz Daş

Duration: 2025-2028

Funding: EU - HORIZON

Abstract:

NUTRIFEEDS is an EU-funded project (Nourishing Europe’s Future Through Regenerative Animal Nutrition, https://nutrifeeds.eu/). The Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN) plays a central role in the NUTRIFEEDS project by leading one work package as well as four tasks addressing key questions related to the nutrition of insects, poultry, and sheep. The overall goal of the NUTRIFEEDS project is to convert currently underutilized local plants, including heat- and drought-tolerant species, as well as by-products from food processing, into high-quality, protein-rich feed. This is achieved through innovative approaches such as the use of black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) and targeted fermentation processes, which improve nutrient content and reduce anti-nutritional factors. In this way, the project contributes to the EU Farm to Fork strategy by reducing dependence on imported feed, strengthening circular resource use, and improving the efficient use of available resources. A planned European Centre of Regenerative Animal Nutrition (EC-RAN) will support the dissemination of project results, promote innovation, and provide online courses. In this way, NUTRIFEEDS contributes to further strengthening Europe’s position in regenerative animal nutrition.

At FBN, experiments with insects focus on identifying underutilized by-products from the European food and feed industry, which will be chemically characterized (e.g., nutrient profiles and anti-nutritional factors) and tested for their suitability as feed for BSFL. Through bench-scale feeding trials and gas exchange experiments, the bioconversion efficiency of BSFL will be assessed. Our research particularly focuses on determining net energy and digestibility of the underutilized substrates and aims to develop stage-specific diets for BSFL. After identifying the most promising substrate combinations, these will be used to produce larger quantities of BSFL through upscaling with an industry partner. Subsequently, the net energy of BSFL for broilers will be tested using indirect calorimetry techniques in respiration chambers.

Experiments on sheep aim to characterize the feeding value of so far underutilized heat- and drought-tolerant plants and their by-products. These include plants partly derived from silvopasture systems, for example summer cuttings from fruit trees grown on orchard meadows (apple, cherry, plum, and buckthorn leaves), as well as Swiss Mattenklee (a red clover variety), Sida hermaphrodita, and Silphium perfoliatum. Plant material will be analyzed to determine nutritive value, biochemical composition, and safety parameters using chemical and in vitro methods. Once characterized, the plant material will be used in feeding experiments with sheep wethers. Supplementation of 20 to 50% of the heat- and drought-tolerant plants in a hay-based diet will be tested. Total collection trials in metabolic cages placed in respiration chambers will be conducted. Important parameters such as feed intake, digestibility, gaseous and urinary nitrogen and carbon emissions, energy balance, and post-absorptive metabolic parameters (plasma antioxidative capacity, mineral status, amino acids) will be measured to quantify the improved feeding value compared to hay feeding only.