• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.401-408
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• 2018

The insect industry in Korea has been supported by the Act of Fostering and Supporting Insect Industry since 2010. Based on the Act, insect breeders are entitled as farmers. However, the insect industry is not included in the Fundamental Act of Agriculture, Rural Community and Food Industry which defines all concepts, such as agriculture, farmers, and agricultural products. Legally and strictly speaking, there is no method to defense the insect industry when an argument is raised that insect industry is not included into agriculture, so persons who breed insects are not eligible for all agricultural supports and subsidies of the government. Thus, it is necessary to clear the legal status of insect industry by revising the related laws and regulations.

• The Korean Journal of Soil Zoology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.10-15
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• 1997

Out of Nephila clavata cocoon collected from pine tree in Hwasung-Gun, Kyungi-Do in 1996 and 1997 Adults of Mantispa japonica were emerged and found to feed on both eggs and newly hatching Nephila clavata nymphs.

• Food Science and Industry
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.188-202
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• 2022

In the insect industry, as the scope of application of insects is expanded from pet insects and natural enemies to feed, edible and medicinal insects, the demand for quality control of insect raw materials is increasing, and interest in securing the safety of insect products is increasing. In the process of expanding the industrial scale, controlling the temperature and humidity and air quality in the insect breeding room and preventing the spread of pathogens and other pollutants are important success factors. It requires a controlled environment under the operating system. European commercial insect breeding facilities have attracted considerable investor interest, and insect companies are building large-scale production facilities, which became possible after the EU approved the use of insect protein as feedstock for fish farming in July 2017. Other fields, such as food and medicine, have also accelerated the application of cutting-edge technology. In the future, the global insect industry will purchase eggs or small larvae from suppliers and a system that focuses on the larval fattening, i.e., production raw material, until the insects mature, and a system that handles the entire production process from egg laying, harvesting, and initial pre-treatment of larvae., increasingly subdivided into large-scale production systems that cover all stages of insect larvae production and further processing steps such as milling, fat removal and protein or fat fractionation. In Korea, research and development of insect smart factory farms using artificial intelligence and ICT is accelerating, so insects can be used as carbon-free materials in secondary industries such as natural plastics or natural molding materials as well as existing feed and food. A Korean-style customized breeding system for shortening the breeding period or enhancing functionality is expected to be developed soon.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.221-227
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• 2022

In accordance with Article 6 of the 「Insect Industry Promotion and Support Act」, the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences conducted a fact-finding investigation in the insect industry for related workers in 2020. Most commonly, insect industry workers were involved in production (98.5%), the male ratio was high (80.4%), while those in their 50s comprised 36.4% of the workers. As for the uses of industrial insects, 66.5% was for food and medicine, 12.7% for feed, and 20.7% as pets. The most commonly produced industrial insect species by use were the white-spotted flower chafer (69.6%), Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis (Kolbe), for food and medicine; crickets (31.2%) for feed; and the rhinoceros beetle (45.6%), Allomyrina dichotoma (Linnaeus), as pets. Powder was the most common product form at 68.5%, and live insects constituted 40.9%. Insect farms with an annual income accounted for 77.3%, of which 65.4% had annual sales of less than 20 million won. Market acquisition was rated by most insect industry workers (84.0%) as the primary challenge. In conclusion, although the number of people employed in the insect industry is increasing annually, the number of young insect farmers (20s to 40s) is decreasing. The production of industrial insects was limited to a few species, and more than half of insect farms have very low incomes. Furthermore, insect farms have the greatest difficulty in market acquisition, necessitating the development of utilization technology to promote the consumption of industrial insects.

• Food Science and Industry
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.128-139
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• 2022

Although edible insects are attracting attention as future alternative food because of their nutritional, eco-friendly, and economic advantages and functionality, consumption is low, so measures to promote consumption are needed. The problems in edible insect consumption were identified as the aversion to the edible insects, lack of publicity for edible insects newly registered in the Food Code, and difficulties in continuously supplying high-quality edible insects and selling products. To solve these problems, it is necessary to establish effective public relations plans for new edible insects and develop processing methods for improving their taste and flavor, education content about edible insects, and products interesting to the target age. In addition, it is necessary to establish a one-stop cluster that can perform quality control of harmful substances and nutrients, purchase raw materials, sell products, educate, and publicize.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.135-159
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• 2014

Industrial insect is defined as the insect utilized in industries that creates added value. Most of the industrial insects used in Korea are exotic species that are introduced through artificial means. Despite the rapid expansion of market for industrial insects, the system for risk assessment of industrial insects is not being adequately conducted. Although Korea carries out a risk assessment for the species designated as disease and insect pest by Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency, far too little consideration is being given to overall ecosystem, as the control system is covered in the Plant Quarantine Law. To solve this problem, we analyzed the Korean risk assessment system and looked at systems in other countries. The results show that it is essential for stakeholders to reach an agreement to set up fundamental directions for the system. Unless the integration system of taxonomical and ecological information is prepared, the ecological risk assessment should be conservative to protect ecosystems and should also follow the precautionary principle. It also requires cooperation among the ministries. In addition, the results indicated that a differentiation between risk assessment and screening is urgent. Several solutions such as setting up clear objectives in both assessment and screening stages, target species, steering organization and assessment criteria assessment systems from were proposed as practical institutional strategies. Among many foreign countries the assessment system from Ireland equally considers various factors such as economical, ecological safety and management aspects, It is also based on precautionary principle to fulfil its original purpose. It was suggested that the Ireland system would be the best reference that can be modified and applied into the Korean system by considering distinct characteristics of the industrial insects.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.283-288
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• 2022

The study aimed to investigate the psychological effect of the emotional insect-assisted healing program on the stress experienced by 43 children in a community child center. Silkworm (Bombyx mori [Linnaeus]) was used in the healing programs, and the stress was measured using salivary alpha-amylase levels. Saliva samples and a survey on insect preference were collected before and after the healing programs, respectively. After the program, the satisfaction score for participation was evaluated. Results indicate that the emotional insect-assisted healing programs led to statistically significant lowering of salivary alpha-amylase levels and increased the preference for insects. The children's satisfaction in the healing program activities using silkworms was 4.23 points out of 5.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.1218-1226
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• 2019

The white-spotted flower chafer Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis is a medicinally beneficial and important edible insect species. We previously performed an in silico analysis of the Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis transcriptome to identify putative antimicrobial peptides and then tested their antimicrobial and hemolytic activities. These peptides had potent antimicrobial activities against bacteria and yeast without inducing hemolysis. In the present study, the cationic antimicrobial peptide, protaetiamycine 2, was selected for further assessment of its anti-inflammatory properties in mouse macrophage Raw264.7 cells. Protaetiamycine 2 treatment of Raw264.7 cells suppressed LPS-induced nitric oxide production and reduced the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase and cyclooxygenase-2, as determined by real-time PCR and western blotting. The expression of proinflammatory cytokines ($TNF-{\alpha}$, IL-6, and $IL-1{\beta}$) was also attenuated through the MAPKs and $NF-{\kappa}B$ signaling. We also confirmed that protaetiamycine 2 bound to bacterial cell membranes by a specific interaction with LPS. Collectively, these data obtained from LPS-induced Raw264.7 cells indicated that protaetiamycine 2 could have both antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties.

• Food Science and Industry
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.140-153
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to organize research trends by analyzing healing studies using emotional insects, and to suggest future research directions. As a result, only six emotional insect species were used for healing purposes, and most of the age groups of the test subjects were elementary school students and the elderly. As for the type of research, field application of the healing program was dominant at 76.5%. Effectiveness verification was mainly conducted through questionnaires before and after participating in the healing program. In some cases, stress-related salivary hormones were used as indicators or clinical tests were conducted by medical staff. Based on the results of this analysis, future strategies such as finding new emotional insect species, developing various types of healing program models, and expanding and subdividing the target subjects were suggested to promote the growth of the healing industry using emotional insects in the future.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.996-1001
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• 2019

Edible insects are reported to be rich in protein, minerals and vitamins, and much attention has been paid to them as a future food source. In Korea, they were massively reared and sold. In order to enhance the market value of edible insects for industrialized mass production, it is important to develop the safe and nutritious feed sources for rearing them are needed. In this study, a chlorella-free control feed (Exp1) and six experimental feeds supplemented with 0.5~2.0% liquid or powder types of chlorella were formulated. Protaetia brevitarsis and Allomyrina dichotoma, registered as food ingredients in Korea, were fed with the designed feeds and parameters of growth including larval survivorship, larval body weight, and larval period were analyzed. When chlorella added, larval survivorship was increased 2~13%(p>0.05) and 9~22%(p<0.05) in each beetle compared to the control. Interestingly, the larval period of chlorella powder-added groups was shortened by 24 days (Exp3, p<0.05) in P. brevitarsis and 19 days (Exp4, p<0.01) in A. dichotoma. Meanwhile, some parameters, crude protein, crude fiber, copper, zinc, potassium, magnesium, and phosphorous, in chlorella-added groups of P. brevitarsis were also higher than the control group. Therefore, chlorella could promote the larval growth performance of these two beetles and be used as a feed additive in rearing them.