Publication Alert: Insect Welfare for BSF, House Flies, and Yellow Mealworms Reviewed
Fly silhouettes (Unsplash)
Applying the five domains to farmed black soldier fly, house fly, and yellow mealworm welfare (Durosaro and Barrett, 2025; CABI Reviews)
Dr. Samuel Durosaro, Barrett lab postdoctoral scholar, makes his first published foray into the world of insect welfare with this review paper! In it, we seek to review the recent (~ the last five years) research into insect welfare for farmed black soldier flies, house flies, and yellow mealworms. As there have been some other reviews on this topic - notably, Barrett et al. 2022 (BSF) and Barrett et al. 2024 (YMs) as well as Kortsmit et al. 2022 (BSF/HF) - this review sought to differentiate itself in the following four ways:
Incorporating the significant body of work published since these reviews were written to allow for more specific guidance on slaughter, nutrition, etc. for some species.
Going beyond behavior for more thorough coverage of HF welfare than Kortsmit et al. 2022.
Updating the discussions in Barrett et al. 2022 to focus on the Five Domains, instead of the Five Freedoms, thereby allowing for work on positive welfare to be included where relevant.
Making the overall analysis of the review significantly more concise and readable by focusing on only the most important or most recent advances in each animal’s welfare.
The review thus serves as a quick primer to the kinds of welfare concerns that come up again and again across different species of insects when mass-reared, as well as some of the unique issues that many manifest for some (but not all) species. As a more readable and quick introduction to the field, we hope this paper encourages folks that haven’t yet forayed into insect welfare to dip their toes in the water by showcasing where there are relevant future directions.
A huge thanks to Dr. Durosaro, who pulled together and wrote this fantastic, comprehensive-yet-concise, review!
Want to read more news from the lab?
