Investigation of dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) susceptibility to red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum (Herbst)) infestation

Fardisi, Mahsa Ph.D., Purdue University, May 2015. Investigation of dried distillers grains with soluble (DDGS) susceptibility to red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum (Herbst)) Infestation. Major Professors: Dr. Linda J Mason and Dr. Klein E. Ileleji. Protecting livestock feed from insect infestation is a common challenge that feed facility managers and farmers have to deal with. It becomes an issue of importance because insect infestation degrades feed quality and quantity. Dried Distillers Grains with Solubles (DDGS) is added to livestock feed because of its high protein content. As DDGS usage in animal feed increases, understanding the susceptibility of DDGS, when mixed with livestock feed, to insect infestation is necessary for safe feed storage. This research addressed four questions. The first looked at the susceptibility of DDGS, when stored as a raw ingredient, to Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) infestation. DDGS susceptibility to T. castaneum was lower when stored as a raw ingredient compared with normal T. castaneum laboratory diet at 30% r.h.. However, increasing r.h. to 50% and grinding DDGS samples, increased DDGS susceptibility to T. castaneum infestation. The second question concerned the susceptibility of livestock feed that contains DDGS to T. castaneum infestation. Results showed that adding any amount of DDGS to animal feed will not change diet susceptibility to T. castaneum infestation and feed pelletization negatively affected insect development. For the third question, experiments were