. 2022 Apr 11;13(4):376. doi: 10.3390/insects13040376

Table 1.

A summary of probiotics tested on insects mass-reared for food and feed with the objective of improving insect performance or fitness against natural pathogens in the mass rearing environment. The table does not include data where bacteria/yeast have been provided to the insect as a probiotic to test its efficacy against a specific human pathogen in vivo, nor does it include insects reared for sterile insect technique programmes.

Insect Species	Probiotics	Effects on Performance and Yield	Ref.
Silkworm	Bacteria
Bombyx mori	*Bifidobacteria*
	Bifidobacterium bifidum	Found to be an immunomodulating agent (increase in the activity of protease, amylase and invertase); increased raw silk production with fewer cocoons	[66]
	*Lactobacilli*
	Lactobacillus acidophilus	Stimulated growth factors leading to an increase in the silk yield and to an improvement of the silk harvest	[67]
	L. casei	Improved larval weight, cocooning ratio, pupation ratio, and economic characters (cocoon weight and size) when larvae were infected with microsporidium Nosema bombycis	[68]
	L. plantarum	Helped to increase body weight, cocoon, shell, and pupation rate	[69]
	*Staphylococci*
	Staphylococcus gallinarum strain SWGB 7 & S. arlettae strain SWGB 16	Increased larval growth and cocoon characters (filament length and weight, finer denier)	[70]
	Yeast
	Saccharomyces cerevisiae	Immunomodulating agent; increased raw silk production with fewer cocoons; increased protein content	[66,71]
	Fungi
	Trichoderma harzianumas	Improved food digestion leading to increased growth and resistance to mortality by Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana	[72]
	Commercial products
	Lact-Act ^a	Larvae reared on leaves sprayed with Lact-Act had increased survival when exposed to bacterial pathogens (Bacillus thuringiensis var. sotto. and Staphylococcus aureus)	[73]
Insect species	Probiotics	Effects on performance and yield	Ref.
Greater wax moth	Bacteria
Galleria mellonella	*Clostridiaceae*
	Clostridium butyricum Miyairi 588	Induced immune response and increased survival rates against Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, enteropathogenic Escherichia coli or Listeria monocytogenes.	[74]
	*Lactobacilli*
	Lactobacillus acidophilus ATCC 4356	Increased survival from Candida albicans infection	[75]
	L. kunkeei ^b	Reduces infection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa through biofilm formation and affecting their stability	[76]
	L. rhamnosus ATCC 7469	Promoted greater protection in larvae infected with Staphylococcus aureus or Escherichia coli.	[52]
	L. rhamnosus ATCC 9595	Reduces infection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa through biofilm formation and affecting their stability	[51]
	L. rhamnosus GG	Induced immune response and increased survival rates against Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, enteropathogenic Escherichia coli or Listeria monocytogenes.	[74]
Yellow mealworm	Bacteria
Tenebrio molitor	*Bacilli*
	Bacillus subtilis	Enhanced growth and nutritional fortification	[77]
	B. toyonensis	Enhanced growth and increased dry matter weight of produced feed	[77]
	*Enterococcaceae*
	Enterococcus faecalis	Increased larval weight gain and overall size and shorter time to pupation, also increased the crude protein content	[77]
	*Lactobacilli*
	Pediococcus pentosaceus (Isolated from the gut of Tenebrio larvae)	Reduces mortality in larvae and accelerates the rate of development. The strain has antimicrobial activity towards a number of pathogenic bacteria including several Bacillus thuringiensis, Serratia, and Pseudomonas spp.	[78]
Insect species	Probiotics	Effects on performance and yield	Ref.
Black soldier fly	Bacteria
Hermetia illucens	Actinomycetia
	Arthrobacter AK19	Enhanced growth rate at early life stages culminating in larger larvae than control	[79]
	*Bacilli*
	Bacillus subtilis S15 S16 S19; B. subtilis natto D1	Increased larval weight and total development time compared to control larvae	[80]
	*Bifidobacteria*
	Bifidobacterium breve	Larvae had lower weights and appeared weak/slow/discolored compared to control	[79]
	*Nocardiaceae*
	Rhodococcus rhodochrous	Increased conversion rate, which could result in larger larvae with less feed. Larvae had increased proteins content related to energy production and storage. Larvae without the probiotic which had higher content of proteins related to stress responses.	[81]
	Commercial product
	Actisaf^® Sc47 ^c	Increased bioconversion rate, lipid and protein yield in processed larvae	[82]
House fly	Bacteria
Musca domestica	*Enterobacteriaceae*
	Enterobacter hormaechei	Increased body length and weight, pupal weight, and shortened growth cycle, which is a considerable advantage that can contribute to cost savings and boost production in large-scale feeding facilities.	[83]

^a—Probiotic powder containing Lactobacillus sporogens, Bacillus thuringiensis, yeast hydrolysate, a-amylase, vita. min and mineral mix; ^b—Strain was isolated from honeybee guts and tested against gram—pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa; ^c—Yeast—Saccharomyces cerevisiae CNCM I-4407.