The INSECTA Conference 2024 was held from May 14 to May 16 in Potsdam, Germany. With 223 guests from 41 countries, 56 talks and 65 posters this year’s INSECTA Conference was a complete success. The INSECTA organizing team would like to thank our 13 sponsors and 5 partners without whom the INSECTA wouldn’t have been possible.
This year Prof. Dr. Andreas Vilcinskas, Prof. Laura Gasco, Dr. Gertje Petersen and Prof. Dr. Sergiy M. Smetana took on the role of keynote speakers and started the discussion on each day with their wide-ranging input. Besides the 4 keynotes, the INSECTA Conference comprised 12 sessions with two of them always running in parallel, amounting to in total 51 oral presentations by scientists and industry experts. Additionally, 65 poster presentations were exhibited, enabling the INSECTA to become a forum for discussion around various topics related to insects once again. The subjects ranged from microbial, physico and chemical risk evaluation to creating production systems following the ideals of a circular economy, whilst also covering breeding, nutritional composition, food production, non-food applications, industrialization and automation, legal aspects, quality management and animal welfare. During the entire conference, academics, scientists and industry professionals had the opportunity to exchange their expertise, debate current developments and find and connect with potential future partners. This kind of open dialogue and the resulting network are crucial for advancing the insect industry and establishing insect products in our modern society. ATB is proud to have hosted the INSECTA Conference 2024 and hopes to increase the awareness even further in the upcoming years. Find more information by the organizer under
Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy.
Thank you for participating in the INSECTA Conference 2024!
Impressions
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Participants
Program
Topics covered the entire value chain of insects:
- Insect Rearing and Production Systems
- Insect Processing for Food and Feed
- Safety and Environmental Aspects
- Non-food Application of Insects
- Animal welfare, ethical and legal aspects
An overview of the entire program can be found on our program page.
Book of Abstracts
The proceedings collect abstracts of all contributions. It is published under Licence CC BY 4.0.
Book of Abstracts INSECTA 2024Keynote Speaker
Prof. Dr. Andreas Vilcinskas
„Insect farming to create a circular bio-economy in Controlled Environment Agriculture„
Andreas Vilcinskas is a full Professor for Applied Entomology at Justus Liebig University Giessen and head of the Branch Bioresources of the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology in Giessen. After completing his doctoral studies at the Free University of Berlin in 1994, he held a substitute Professorship in Evolutionary Biology and Zoology at the Department of Biochemistry and Biology at the University of Potsdam. In 2004, he moved to the Justus Liebig University Giessen where he directed the LOEWE Center for Insect Biotechnology and Bioresources from 2010 to 2022. Since 2015, he is also the founding Director of the world’s first academic institute for Insect Biotechnology at the University of Giessen. His research encompasses the engineering of technologies enabling up-scaling of industrial insect farming, as well as the development of higher added value products from farmed insects.
Prof. Laura Gasco
„Insects as feed: last research and hot topics“
Laura Gasco is a Full Professor at the Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences of the University of Turin (Italy). Laura focuses her research on fish, rabbit and poultry farming and nutrition assessing performances and the impact of alternative ingredients on product quality. Since 2012 her research is focused on the use of insect meals as innovative ingredients in animal nutrition and on the optimisation of insect rearing for the production of high quality raw materials. In particular, her research focuses on the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) and on the yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor). She is involved in projects related to insects as feed. Laura is president of the Study Commission Insects of the European Federation of Animal Science. She is Section editor for animal: The international journal of animal biosciences, and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Insects as Food and Feed.
Dr. Gertje Petersen
“Sustainable Adaptation – The promise of genetic improvement for farmed insects”
Gertje Petersen is the head of the LAVES Institute for Apiculture in Celle, Germany. After completing her studies on veterinary medicine at the Freie Universität Berlin with the goal of becoming a livestock veterinarian, she moved to New Zealand in 2013, where she instantly became involved in working with large-scale commercial beekeeping operations. During these years, she pursued a PhD in Animal Breeding and Genetics at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, in cooperation with Ag-Tech leaders AbacusBio Ltd, investigating “The role of molecular genetic variation and population structure in the genetic improvement of the honeybee, Apis mellifera”. After working with commercial beekeeping operations across the globe for 10 years on topics ranged from honeybee genetic improvement to business formation and systems improvement, she returned to Germany to take on the role of Director of the State Institute for Apiculture in Lower Saxony.
Prof. Dr. Sergiy M. Smetana
“From waste to sustainability: nutrient, economic and social circularity of insect technologies”
Sergiy M. Smetana works as Head of the Food Data Group at the German Institute of Food Technologies (DIL e.V.) since 2017 and as Professor of Food System Analysis at TiHo (University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover) since 2023. During his carrier he worked at the University of Vechta (Germany), Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, USA) and Institute of Nature Management Problems (Ukraine). The focus of his research is sustainability assessment of innovative food processing technologies, alternative protein sources and data analysis of complex food systems.
Organizers
The INSECTA Conference 2024 was organized by Leibniz-Institut for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy e.V. (ATB) under the leadership of Dr.-Ing. habil. Oliver Schlüter and Giacomo Rossi, who were responsible for the organization and planning of all activities related to the conference. They were supported by the ATB organizing team, consisting of Anke Kemnitz, Jessica Lietze, Lisa Muchow, Chiara Petzold, Marios Psarianos, Denise Schadow and Justus Heinz Schneider.
We would also like to express our deepest gratitude to all other ATB and PPM employees who contributed to the organization, preparation, clean-up or in any other manner.
The INSECTA 2024 was jointly organized by
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Venue, Accommodation and Transportation
The INSECTA 2023 conference was held at ILB (Investitionsbank des Landes Brandenburg), Potsdam, Germany on May 14 and at ATB (Leibniz-Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy e.V.), Potsdam, Germany on May 15 to 16. We thank our cooperation partners for providing the venue and supporting our organizing team on site. We also don’t want to neglect our partners offering advantages deals regarding accommodations for INSECTA attendees, the shuttle company, allowing smooth travel towards and between this year’s variety of locations and of course the amazing crew of the MS Sans Souci, providing an unforgettable experience for all participants.
Partners
We thank our partners:
Sponsors
We thank our sponsors:
