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A study has found that reticulated pythons, primarily farmed in Southeast Asia, could become a sustainable protein source to complement existing livestock systems. This is because reticulated pythons grow quickly and have high feed efficiency. Dr. Daniel Natusch's team at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, analyzed the growth rates of reticulated pythons farmed in Thailand and Vietnam over one year and published their findings on the 15th in the scientific journal Scientific Reports.

With the increasing risk of food insecurity due to climate change and population growth, finding alternatives to replace traditional aquaculture and livestock as protein sources has become an urgent task. Cold-blooded animals such as fish, insects, and reptiles have higher energy efficiency than warm-blooded animals like cattle and poultry. In particular, snake meat is popular and actively farmed in some countries such as Southeast Asia, but the scale is still small and it has not attracted much attention.

[Image source=Pixabay]

In this study, the research team analyzed the growth rates and feed conversion ratios (FCR: the amount of feed intake relative to weight gain) of 4,601 reticulated pythons and Burmese pythons raised at two farms located in Uttaradit Province, Thailand, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

The pythons were fed protein sources available locally, such as wild rodents and fish meal, and their body weights were regularly measured over one year. Weight changes during periods without feeding were also investigated. The results showed that both reticulated and Burmese pythons grew rapidly over 12 months even without frequent feeding.

Female pythons exhibited higher growth rates than males, and the daily weight gain ranged from 0.24 to 42.6 g for Burmese pythons and 0.24 to 19.7 g for reticulated pythons. In experiments where feeding was withheld for 20 to 127 days, the average daily weight loss was only 0.004%, and rapid growth resumed immediately once feeding restarted.

At the Ho Chi Minh farm, feed conversion ratios were measured by feeding 58 Burmese pythons with chicken, pork by-products, rodents, and fish meal, resulting in 4.1 g of feed leading to 1 g of weight gain.

The research team explained that this feed conversion ratio is higher than that of other livestock studied so far and showed little variation depending on the type of feed. They also noted that an advantage of reticulated pythons is that 82% of their total body weight consists of usable parts such as meat.

The team suggested that these results indicate python farming could be a feasible and sustainable food production alternative to complement existing livestock systems. They added, "Further research is needed on effective and humane methods to produce this new livestock."

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