Insect proteins as a potential source of antimicrobial peptides in livestock production. A review

By A. Józefiak, R. Engberg. 2017

159 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Antibiotics have been used for over 50 years in animal production for treatment of infectious diseases and as growth stimulators. However, the misuse of antibiotics has caused problems primarily related to the development of bacterial antibiotic resistance. Also, the possible accumulation of drug residues in animal products is risky for consumers and likewise contributes to the development of bacterial antibiotic resistance. These factors have resulted in a global trend to restrict the use of antibiotics in the feed industry, agriculture and veterinary medicine (Landers et al., 2012; Coyne et al., 2016). The search for alternatives to antibiotics is an urgent challenge for animal production as the maintenance of production performance as well as animal health and welfare has to be addressed adequately. ABSTRACT. Together with the extraction of first insect antimicrobial protein (AMP) from the pupae of the giant silk moths Hyalophora cecropia the antibacterial activity of insects was observed for the first time in 1980. Practically, AMPs are small, cationic proteins that exhibit activity against bacteria, fungi as well as certain parasites and viruses. It is known that in addition to their antimicrobial effect, they boost host specific innate immune responses and exert selective immunomodulatory effects involved in angiogenesis and wound healing. More than 1,500 proteins with antimicrobial activity have been identified in different organisms, including plants, fungi, bacteria and animals. Insects are a primary source of AMPs which are considered as not resulting in the development of natural bacterial resistance. In general, they are characterized as heat-stable with no adverse effects on eukaryotic cells. These characteristics contribute to the potential use of these proteins in human and veterinary medicine and in animal nutrition. Depending on their mode of action, insect AMPs may be applied as single peptides, as a complex of different AMPs and as an active fraction of insect proteins in the nutrition of different livestock. The great potential for the use of AMPs in animal production is primarily associated with the growing problem of antibiotics resistance, which has triggered the search for alternatives to antibiotics in livestock production. The review presents the current knowledge of insect AMPs, their chemical structure and mode of action with focus on their potential use in agriculture and livestock production. Received: 18 October 2016 Revised: 16 February 2017 Accepted: 15 May 2017

Subfields: Genetics, Insect Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/69899053eca6244a9844e19373d98a8c8243f251

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Citations in the corpus

Insect and fish by-products as sustainable alternatives to conventional animal proteins in animal nutrition (2020, background): “…Henry et al. 2018; Komi et al. 2018; Kvalsvik Stenberg et al. 2019), and modulate gut microbiome in animals (Bruni et al. 2018; Antonopoulou et al. 2019; Biasato et al. 2019b; Rimoldi et al. 2019), thus promoting health and welfare (J ozefiak and Engberg 2017; Gasco et al. 2018b; Wu et al. 2018).”
The Utilization of Full-Fat Insect Meal in Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) Nutrition: The Effects on Growth Performance, Intestinal Microbiota and Gastrointestinal Tract Histomorphology (2019, background): “The modulating effect of insect AMPs on the intestinal microbiome has been reported in many studies on farm animals (Wu et al., 2012; Xiao et al., 2015; Yoon et al., 2012, 2013, 2014).”
Can diets containing insects promote animal health (2018, background): “Although they have not yet been introduced on the market, according to Józefiak and Engberg (2017) ht tp :// w w w .w ag en in ge na ca de m ic .c om /d oi /p df /1 0.”