Bioconversion of biosolids by black soldier fly larvae: Changes of the host- and diet associated microbiome
Insect-based bioconversion using black soldier fly (BSF) is an emerging waste management technology to circularize organic waste and produce high-value BSF larvae (BSFL) biomass and frass as by-product. Previous studies have shown that this technology can reduce significant amounts of biosolids quickly and produce larvae biomass of low heavy metal concentrations. However, an analysis on the transmission of pathogens and ARGs into the end-products, BSFL and frass, have been not done. We hypothesize that BSF-based bioconversion be a solution to decrease the abundance of pathogenic bacteria. We performed BSFL feeding trials with biosolids blended or not blended with wheat bran, and wheat bran alone as a low bioburden diet (control). We conducted 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to monitor changes of the BSFL-associated microbial community and the fate of biosolids-associated pathogens.