In the past, maggots were been
associated with waste and worthlessness, but studies have shown that maggot
meal can be a good source of animal protein in fish and poultry diets. Adesulu
and Mustapha(2000) reported that the levels of some essential amino acids
including cystine, histidine, phenylalanine, tryptophan and tyrosine in maggot
meal is higher than in fish meal and soy bean meal. Maggot meal is rich also in
phosphorous, trace elements and B complex vitamins (Teotia and miller 1973).
Ranges of 40-58% crude protein, 40-58% lipid, 5-8% crude fiber and 0.56-1.4%
ash have been documented for maggot meal (Ajayi, 1998).Zhijian zhang et al., (2010) reported on the
nutritional values of different processing methods of maggots , saying that the
moisture level of fresh maggot averaged 74.8% while dry maggot averaged 7.5%
.He further
reported that crude protein in biomass of fresh larvae and dry larvae,
ranged from 10.4-18.5% and 55.3-61.2% respectively. 
These values were relatively
higher than those observed in other studies using black soldier fly maggot (40-45%
of protein contents). In addition,
Zhijian et al., (2010) thus reported that essential amino acids (THR, VAL, LEU,
PHE, LET and LYS) accounted for around 48.5% of the total amino acids, while
higher percentages of GLU, ASP, and HIS were also found. Maggot meal is of high
biological value. The percentage of crude protein ranges from 39.55%, lipid
12.5-21% and crude fiber 5.8-8.2% (Ogunji et
al., 2008). Ogunji and Iyaka (2008) reported that the biological value of
maggot meal was equivalent to that of whole fish meal and that the larvae
contained no anti-nutritional or toxic factors sometimes found in alternative
protein sources of vegetable origin. Fasakin et al., (2003) reported that crude protein content of maggot meals
ranged between 43.3% and 46.7% in full –fat sun dried and hydrolyzed /defatted
oven dried maggot meals respectively.
Thus similar crude protein and lipid
values were obtained in processing methods involving sun drying and oven drying
either hydrolyzed or defatted maggot meals (Fasakin, Balogun and Ajani
2003).proximate analysis showed that house fly maggot meal from substrate
mixture of cattle blood and wheat bran harvested on day 3 contained 47.1% crude
protein, 25.3%fat, 7.5% crude fiber and 6.25% ash at a dry matter level of
92.7% (Aniebo, Erondu and Owen 2008).