India is one of the world's top shrimp producers. More than 40% of the shrimp available in US markets is imported from India. But from energy to feed, shrimp farms in Tamil Nadu face ever rising costs – putting some under threat of closure. Now though there could be a solution: ditching traditional fishmeal for insect feed. It's cheaper and easier to handle. And with disease an ever-growing problem in shrimp aquaculture, feed made from particular insects can offer another welcome benefit. As Nitish Satyanarayanan, Chief Scientific Officer of Ultranutri explains “…when these defense peptide enriched insects are fed to shrimps, we have shown at lab level that the immunity of the shrimps significantly goes up by which they actually become more resistant to diseases.”
And the advantages don’t stop there. Unlike fishmeal, insect feed leaves fish stocks untouched – and that has a knock-on effect for sustainability.