Professor Kim Du-woon of CNU’s Division of Food Technology, Biotechnology & Agrochemistry has succeeded in developing natural materials to prevent and minimize diseases in industrial insects.

Professor Kim, along with the Korea Partnership for Innovation of Agriculture and the Nakdonggang National Institute of Biological Resources of the Ministry of Environment, successfully extracted a natural remedy that neutralizes the Nudiviruses in rhinoceros beetles using a non-ionic surfactant, a food additive.

According to the research team, the rhinoceros beetle larvae infected with Nudiviruses typically had a mortality rate of 62% within 3 to 6 weeks. However, the mortality rate significantly decreased when the larvae consumed the natural remedy developed by the team. Moreover, the percentage of larvae that grew into adults increased from 70.8% to 93.8%, a 23.8% gain. 

The research team obtained international patents for the extraction model of the developed material and published the research results in an international academic journal, Entomological Research (impact factor: 1.358).

Industrial insects are gaining attention as a high-income source for farming, food, and feed, and they hold significant promise as a protein substitute in the meat market, helping reduce carbon dioxide emissions from beef production.