New study suggests alternative to harvesting frog legs from the wild
Europeans’ taste for frog legs is pushing the amphibians, 95 per cent of which are caught in the wild in Asia, to extinction. But now, the results of a new study offer a way to produce the delicacy locally, and leave wild populations alone: frog farms. Previously, farming frogs was thought to be an expensive, largely ineffective venture. Disease spreads rapidly between frogs in close quarters, and they prefer live prey over food pellets. However, André Neveu at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research in Rennes found that, with the use of a hush-hush feeding technique, he was able to use marsh frogs to yield about 29 kg of frog meat per square. Still, other scientists have doubts about the feasibility and impact of getting cuisses de grenouilles from farming operations.