University of Idaho and Idaho State University scientists are working on a new maggot-based feed capable of fattening rainbows for the dinner table, while simultaneously helping slash growing mounds of manure and fish entrails.
Idaho is America's largest commercial producer of trout, with the industry bringing in more than $35 million annually. And with 500,000 cows, it's surpassed Pennsylvania as the nation's fourth-biggest dairy state.
That got Sophie St. Hilaire, an aquatic species veterinarian, thinking: Why couldn't dairies use a slurry of cow dung and trout intestines to grow maggots rich in fatty acids that make fish so good for humans?
With demand from giant Chinese fish farms driving fish meal prices up to $1,400 a ton, St. Hilaire is aiming to create something much cheaper that also eats up tons of cow dung and fish guts in the process.