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PROJECT INFO

Project title: Advancing sustainable solutions by developing insect-based protein as new feed options 

Acronym: PRO-SUSTAIN

Sub-program: Biotechnical Sciences

Participating Scientific and Research Organizations (SROs) and their acronyms:

University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Agriculture (UNSFA)

Principal Investigator (PI): Igor Jajić, PhD, full professor

PROJECT ABSTRACT

PRO-SUSTAIN, as the all-around innovation project concerning insects as animal feed in Serbia, has the vision of creating a sustainable resource-efficient industry for animal protein production based on mealworms in West Balkan countries. The main goal of PRO-SUSTAIN is facilitating Serbian and West Balkan industrial insect production over the coming years and to enable new market opportunities for insects as animal feed. It is aimed to ensure that insect-based protein of high biological value is produced through the concept of a circular economy, using the by-products of the industry as a nutritive substrate, under optimal farming conditions. Regarding that, PRO-SUSTAIN will investigate and optimize the conditions for mass farming of insects, their processing into animal feed, as well as their effect on digestibility and growth performance parameters. Additionally, the environmental footprint of insect farming would be evaluated through greenhouse gas emissions. It is expected to fully optimize mass rearing of insects, their biotechnological processing into insect larvae meal and further into animal feed and diets. Additionally, the project would provide results on growth performance and digestibility in poultry fed insect-based diets.

Social impact is expected to be sizable, since the population in Europe, especially in this area, where the people are not accustomed to using insects as feed. The primary beneficiaries of this project would be the feed manufacturers, receiving the technology transfer needed to introduce insect-based protein into animal feed, including optimized insect farming. Farmers would gain an insight into the practical use of insect-based feed formulation and its benefits. The further beneficiaries who will have access to and use the results of the joint scientific activities through dissemination and technology transfer belong to non-governmental, governmental, and private sectors.

Project team


About Project Team

Prof. Dr. Igor Jajić, professor

Professor Igor Jajić as PI will manage, organize, monitor, and evaluate all project activities, including the realization of objectives, procurements, human resources, and financial aspects of the project. Furthermore, he will be responsible for all tests that would be carried out in the analytical laboratory at the department of animal science, including sample management (preparation, storage), analytical method performance and quality control, as well as statistical evaluation of the laboratory results. The Laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art laboratory instruments, including GC/MS, HPLC, AAS, ET-AAS, spectrometers, laboratory mills and other laboratory equipment specific for feed and animal products analysis. He will monitor the preparation and the realization of insect mass farming experiments. Coordinate between insect farming team and the team for insect drying and biotechnological processing. Ultimately, he will be responsible for the realization of environmental footprint of insect farming.

Prof. Dr. Aleksandra Popović, professor

Associate professor Aleksandra Popović will coordinate all experiments which are in  onnection with insect farming. She will be responsible for insect rearing activities. Based on her knowledge, she will have a main role in insect farming experiments settings which include two insect species reared on several different nutritional substrates (cereals, oilseeds, and their industry by-products) under laboratory-scale conditions, to select the ones appropriate for the mass farming (large-scale) stage. The laboratory for entomology at the department for plant and environmental protection in witch experiments will be held, is equipped with modern climate chambers (Witeg WIR 420 Smart Lab and Binder BD 260) with controlled microclimate (temperature and relative humidity) Considering the rate of development of two mentioned insect species reared on different substrates and their nutritional composition she and P6 will decide which insect species is more suitable for mass rearing and how the large-scale experiment will be done. Furthermore, she will coordinate activities on the data summarizing and writing of publications.

Dr. Dejan Beuković, assistant professor

Assistant professor Dejan Beuković  will be the organizer and coordinator of all activities within thepackage Technological preparation and production of larval meal as animal feed . Together with the other participants in this package, they will ensure the procurement and commissioning of the required equipment. He will actively participate in the selection of the appropriate formulation of the diet of insect meals and food for the control group of animals. Moreover, he will contribute to the optimization of different drying processes of pellets for animal feed, on the basis of which complete feeding mixture with different insect meal inclusion rates will be determined.

Dr. Miloš Petrović, assistant professor

Dr. Miroslava Polovinski Horvatović,
 Senior researcher

Senior researcher Miroslava Polovinski Horavatović  will manage design and coordination of all activities in experiment with poultry. She will organize the selection and procurement of animals (broiler chickens), procurement necessary feed materials, as well as for optimization of housing conditions for broiler chickens.

Thereafter, she will coordinate the feeding trial to determine growth performance in broiler chickens fed insect-based diets.During the trial,  he will participate in regular non-invasive measurement of animal growth parameters and especially in the monitoring of their health status. At the end of trial, he will coordinate activities on the data summarizing and writing scientific articles.

Dr. Saša Krstović,
 assistant professor

Assistant professor Saša Krstović will coordinate communication and dissemination activities of the project. Cooperating with other team members, he would be responsible for the development and implementation of the communication and dissemination plan. Furthermore, he will coordinate the development of tools for project dissemination (project website and social media), the implementation of the publication strategy, realization of workshops, as well as networking activities. He would also be responsible for mailing list maintenance, newsletter, leaflet and poster design and distribution. He will also coordinate the development of the strategy for IPR management.

Msc Nikola Laćarac

PhD student

Assistant professor Saša Krstović will coordinate communication and dissemination activities of the project. Cooperating with other team members, he would be responsible for the development and implementation of the communication and dissemination plan. Furthermore, he will coordinate the development of tools for project dissemination (project website and social media), the implementation of the publication strategy, realization of workshops, as well as networking activities. He would also be responsible for mailing list maintenance, newsletter, leaflet and poster design and distribution. He will also coordinate the development of the strategy for IPR management.

Msc Marko Vukadinović,
 PhD student

Marko Vukadinović will carry out activities related to technological processing of larvae, i.e. obtaining insect meal and its inclusion in feed mixtures for broiler chickens. The phases in which they will have activities are related to the drying of insect larvae, degreasing and grinding. Then, in the following phases, they will actively work on the formulation and optimization of complete mixtures, as well as the production of mixtures that will be used in metabolic and production experiments on chickens.