Jeffrey Ng, the adviser to the Federation of Livestock Farmers’ Associations of Malaysia, said incorporating BSF meal into chicken feed was a viable option as it was a good source of protein.

“It could be a possible replacement for soybean meal, but it cannot replace conventional chicken feed entirely, only supplement it,” he told FMT.

He explained that energy and protein content were the two main factors to consider in chicken feed. BSF meal was only sufficient in fulfilling the protein requirements and not the total energy requirements.

Ng said studies on the cultivation of BSF needed to be conducted to establish a gold standard for the industry and ensure that it was safe and of high quality.

“With these standards established, we can then look into how to scale up production to fulfill the needs of the whole market,” he said.

Universiti Putra Malaysia’s Dr Zulkifli Idrus has also urged the government to consider BSF as a long-term alternative to soybean meal to reduce dependence on foreign imports.

Zulkifli told Sinar Harian that breeding BSF could help solve waste management as their food consisted of palm oil waste and food waste.

In January, UPM announced that it would be researching the formulation of feed for free-range chickens using BSF larvae.

Ng also agreed that cultivating BSF could have positive ecological impacts.

“The BSF industry is actually a circular economy because waste can be converted into feed for the insects, then the waste from the BSF larvae can be used as fertilizer. It can potentially benefit the whole society and not just the poultry industry,” he said.