While the use of alien insect species for food and feed can help to alleviate protein shortage and provide for a more sustainable feed production, their invasive potential should be considered since invasive alien species represent one of the five main global threats to biodiversity. In the European Union (EU), eight insect species have already been authorized to be used as feed ingredients for aquaculture organisms, pets, poultry, and pigs. These species were selected based on available national risk assessments, as most of them are non-native to Europe. However, it is not clear how these risk assessments truly consider all EU bioregions, given that the information used was mostly biased towards northern European regions. As a large proportion of invasive alien species already present in the EU were introduced unintentionally, it is therefore crucial to understand and manage the potential pathways of such introductions in a more effective way. Here, we provide a critical overview of the potential risks of rearing alien insect species as feed or as pet food (for both livestock and exotic pets) in the EU. The results showed that some of these insect species have an invasive potential, either due to their reproductive capacity in different climates or due to the fact that they have already established populations in areas where they were introduced, with negative effects on local ecosystems or causing economical losses. For this reason, it is recommended that risk assessments should be performed in other EU bioregions as well as monitoring programs to control the spread of insect species with invasive potential. In addition, other available native insect species with potential to be used as feed ingredients should be considered.

O acantocéfalo Neoechinorhynchus (Neoechinorhynchus) buttnerae Golvan, 1956 é altamente específico para Colossoma macropomum (Cuvier, 1818) e tem sido registrado em diferentes pisciculturas no Brasil. Os danos que pode causar variam desde deficiencias nutricionais, alterações morfológicas, lesões no intestino, até a morte dos peixes. Assim, o presente estudo teve como objetivo registrar a presença deste parasita e avaliar seus índices parasitários. Doze C. macropomum provenientes de um viveiro escavado no município Rio Preto da Eva, no Amazonas, Brasil foram analisados. Dos peixes analisados foram identificados e coletados 4170 indivíduos de N.(N.) buttnerae parasitando o intestino dos peixes com uma prevalência de 100%, intensidade de infecção entre 107 – 921 e, uma intensidade e abundância média de 347,5 ± 239,16. Existiu uma correlaçao positiva entre o tamanho dos peixes e o número de parasitas presente no intestino dos C. macropomum. Os altos índices parasitários registrados servem como sinal de alerta para os piscicultores, considerando os danos que este parasita pode causar no cultivo de C. macropomum. Medidas profilácticas e sanitárias devem ser levadas em consideração ao cultivar esta espécie de peixe em pisciculturas da Amazônia brasileira.

Este artículo reporta el primer registro de una población establecida de la mosca de las algas Malacomyia sciomyzina (Haliday, 1833) (Diptera, Coelopidae) en la playa de Barra, Aveiro, Portugal. Un total de 17 especímenes fueron capturados con redes de barrido sobre las algas marinas de la zona intermareal dominadas por Fucus sp. y con la presencia del jacinto de agua invasivo Eichhornia crassipes (Mart) Solms. Los individuos de esta especie fueron observados durante el otoño, sobrevolando las algas marinas en esta zona costera. Los individuos adultos fueron colectados y criados bajo condiciones controladas en un insectario, utilizando el alga parda Fucus sp. como sustrato. El ciclo de vida se completó en aproximadamente 5 semanas a 15ºC. Entre los especímenes emergidos se observaron grandes variaciones de longitud, tanto en machos como en hembras.

World aquaculture is expected to continue to grow over the next few decades, which amplifies the need for a higher production of sustainable feed ingredients for aquatic animals. Insects are considered good candidates for aquafeed ingredients because of their ability to convert food waste into highly nutritional biomass. However, commercially available terrestrial insect species lack n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAs), which are essential biomolecules for marine cultured species. Nevertheless, several coastal insect species feature LC-PUFAs in their natural fatty acid (FA) profile. Here, we analysed the lipidic profile of wild-caught seaweed fly Fucellia maritima, with a focus on their FA profile, to evaluate its potential to be used as an aquafeed ingredient, as well as to screen for the presence of pathogenic bacteria. Results showed that the flies had a total lipid content of 13.2% of their total dry weight. The main classes of phospholipids (PLs) recorded were phosphatidylethanolamines (PEs) (60.8%), followed by phosphatidylcholine (PC) (17.1%). The most abundant FA was palmitoleic acid (C16:0) with 34.9% ± 4.3 of total FAs, followed by oleic acid (C18:1) with 30.4% ± 2.3. The FA composition of the flies included essential fatty acids (EFAs) for both freshwater fish, namely linoleic acid (C18:2 n-6) with 3.4% ± 1.3 and alpha-linoleic acid (C18:3 n-3) with 3.4% ± 1.9, and marine fish, namely arachidonic acid (C20:4 n-6) with 1.1% ± 0.3 and eicosapentaenoic acid (C20:5 n-3) with 6.1% ± 1.2. The microbiological analysis found 9.1 colony-forming units per gram (CFU/g) of Enterobacteriaceae and no presence of Salmonella sp. was detected in a sample of 25 g of fresh weight. These findings indicate that Fucellia maritima biomass holds the potential to be used as an additional aquafeed ingredient due to its FA profile and the low count of pathogenic bacteria, which can contribute to the optimal growth of fish and shrimp with a low risk of pathogen transfer during the feed production chain.