Flies are full of treasure -- a factory in Tianjin feeds flies with milk powder

OA show ('918 '); xinhuanet.com Tianjin November 30 special telegram (reporter Zhang Tao) has been accompanied by human beings, but also hated by human flies With the efforts of scientists engaged in biological and chemical research, the whole body has become a "treasure", which may be widely developed and utilized in the near future With curiosity, the reporter visited relevant enterprises and scientific researchers to find out the secret In the early morning of November 28, the reporter drove to tuanpuwa, which is famous for its poet Guo Xiaochuan Due to the growing fog in the suburbs, it took the reporter more than an hour to travel about 40 minutes Under the leadership of Wang Mingru, deputy secretary of tuanpowa development company of Dagang Oilfield Group, and Ji Mingyao, director of Bioengineering Technology Research Institute, the reporter came to the rather mysterious "housefly" breeding factory The so-called "housefly" breeding factory is two rows of simple and tidy bungalows There is neither the roar of machines nor the bustling scene of workers working in the yard Everything is quiet Looking at the reporter's puzzled look, Ji Mingyao introduced that the two rows of bungalows are divided into three parts, one is the breeding workshop, one is the pilot refining workshop, and the other is the vacuum crushing workshop Push open a door, appear in front of is a row of neat fly cage, but have no living fly Reporter sees in another house, put a few rows of shelves, arrange a few big plates in turn, spread a thick layer of wheat bran above It is mainly used to raise eggs, larvae and pupae of houseflies The staff carried several bags of eggs, larvae, pupae and houseflies from the freezer for reporters "Due to the completion of the pilot test a while ago and the low temperature in the near future, we have not raised live flies." Ji Mingyao told reporters, "flies are people's usual names In fact, what we raise here is only one kind of flies, which is called" houseflies "in academic circles People think that flies are dirty because they always come and go in dirty places They are just vectors to spread germs The original species of the housefly that we cultured here is introduced from the animals and does not carry any bacteria At the same time, we provide a clean environment for the housefly's life and carry out strict aseptic treatment for every growth stage Therefore, the flies here are essentially different from what people usually call flies " "Houseflies like sweet food, so we specially feed them with milk powder and wheat bran, which grow very fast Under natural conditions, the growth cycle of housefly is about 14 days If we raise housefly artificially, we can shorten the cycle to 7 days, that is, one generation can be produced in one week " In this factory, several experts and professors from Nankai University and Tianjin University and tuanpowa development company of Dagang oil field have worked together to tackle the key problems They have completed the pilot production of chitin and chitosan from maggot skin If they make full use of the existing conditions, they can produce 50kg maggots a day The product quality is excellent and can reach the reagent level They have applied for two patents Recently, they passed the The appraisal presided over by Tianjin Science and Technology Commission Wang Xuecheng, manager of tuanpowa development company of Dagang Oilfield Group, believes that oil is a non renewable resource industry with limited prospects As an enterprise mainly engaged in oil production, it is urgent to find alternative high-tech industries The project of "engineering fly" jointly developed by the oil field and the University focuses on its broad development and utilization prospect On the morning of November 29, the reporter came to the school of life sciences of Nankai University and met three experts of the project: Professor Du rongqian, Professor Li Desen, Professor Qu Ronglin, analysis center of Tianjin University Professor Qu Ronglin introduced that the subject of "the preparation of chitin and chitosan from housefly larvae and its pilot study" started in 1998 and was jointly cooperated by Nankai University, Tianjin University and Dagang Oilfield The laboratory research was completed last spring and the pilot test was completed this year That is to say, the systematic research work has been completed from laboratory test to pre industrialization In the laboratory, Professor Du brought reporters seven or eight samples from houseflies in glass containers According to Professor Du, housefly can be divided into four growth stages: egg, maggot, pupa and fly It mainly extracts the required substances from housefly maggots The skin of maggots can produce chitin and chitosan; the pulp crushed by maggots can separate the "antimicrobial peptide" with high-strength bactericidal effect, which is a pure natural product and is not easy to produce drug resistance compared with the current popular antibiotics; maggot oil can be used in cosmetics and health products; maggot protein has a good balance of amino acids suitable for human absorption, which can be made into health products; the waste of houseflies Feed can produce pollution-free organic fertilizer, especially suitable for flower and vegetable "Don't underestimate this little life, it's full of treasure!" Professor Du brought a plate, which was a pile of white solid material "This is a high-purity chitosan extracted from the shell of housefly maggots It is a natural polymer compound, which can be widely used in medicine, food, health products, cosmetics and other fields, such as making surgical sutures, contact lenses, artificial skin, etc Chitosan has been found to have a direct inhibitory effect on cancer cells, regulate physiological functions and enhance resistance It is called the sixth life element of human beings " Mr Li Desen said that there are four main reasons for choosing housefly as the research and development object: first, as an insect all over the world, housefly has a high reproduction coefficient, a pair of flies can lay 1000 eggs, and there is no shortage of raw materials Second, the life cycle is short, the general feeding can be about 7 days Third, it's easy to feed, just feed with milk powder and wheat bran Fourth, the flies have a unique immune system According to Professor Qu Ronglin, methicin, chitosan and their derivatives can be widely used in medicine, food, cosmetics, environmental protection and other fields Its importance has been recognized by more and more people, but at present, these two raw materials are mainly extracted from shrimp, crab and other animals Because shrimp and crab mainly live in the sea water, the environment is not easy to control, the possibility of heavy metal pollution increases On the one hand, due to artificial feeding, good environment control, the purity of extraction is higher; on the other hand, because the housefly does not have high calcium of shrimp and crab, the development and application range is wider It will be the 21st century for biotechnology to make scientific research achievements go to the market as soon as possible At present, many governments, enterprises and investors in the world have turned their eyes to the development of biotechnology related industries and products It is predicted that in the first 15 years of the 21st century, biotechnology will enter the stage of large-scale industrialization, and its process will be accelerated According to the three experts, from the perspective of the current development trend of biotechnology in the world, the above judgment is beyond doubt However, there are still many obstacles, such as risk awareness, funds, industrial policies, etc., that need to be overcome in the transformation of domestic scientific research achievements into real productivity Professor Du rongqian said that, taking the research and development of "engineering flies" project as an example, from the literature retrieval, at present, there is no literature report on the preparation of methicin and chitosan from housefly larvae abroad, and there is no product from insects at home and abroad; there is no report on the expansion of industrial production of housefly larvae to pilot scale The advantages of this project are obvious In addition to the need to continue to improve the research of "antimicrobial peptides", there is no technical problem in the development of methicin, chitosan and their derivatives However, due to various reasons such as funding, there is still a long way to go before industrialization Mr Li Desen made a metaphor that we are looking for investment partners with lanterns Some investors are looking for projects with lanterns, but we just can't meet each other According to the three experts, the transformation of scientific research results into real productivity requires not only the government and other departments to build bridges, but also all aspects to change ideas, enhance the awareness of venture capital and market development Scientific researchers also need to take the initiative to walk out of the narrow laboratory, learn to sell themselves, and make the industry, University and research really unite, so as to create a win-win situation China feed industry information network KZL (author:)