Long-Term Artificial Selection for Increased Larval Body Weight of Hermetia illucens in Industrial Settings

Abstract

Black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) farming has exponentially increased in recent years due to the ability of its larvae to efficiently convert low-grade organic materials into high-value food, feed, and technical products. There is a need to further improve the efficiency of production, to meet the rising demands for proteins in the feed and food industries under limited resources. One means of improvement is artificial selection, which has been widely applied in plants and in other livestock species. In 2019, a genetic improvement program was started with the aim to increase larval body weight in black soldier fly larvae. In this paper, we present the outcomes of this breeding program after 10, 13, and 16 generations of selection. The performance of the selected body weight line was compared to the base population line over six experimental rounds under different environmental conditions. Under automated production settings, an average increase of +39% in larval weight, +34% in wet crate yield, +26% in dry matter crate yield, +32% in crude protein per crate, and +21% crude fat per crate was achieved in the selected line compared to the base population line. This research demonstrates the potential contribution of artificial selection to improve efficiency when farming black soldier flies in industrial settings. Further research is needed to fully unlock that potential.