INTRODUCTION - Feed production and quality is
considered to be one of the major factors influencing the success of fish
production in aquaculture. The high cost and scarcity of feed stuffs
particularly the protein source is also a factor militating against commercial
fish and animal production in developing countries like Nigeria. Only on April 12, 2000, the Nigerian minister
for agriculture (Alhaji sanni zango duara) revealed that Nigerian government
spends 3 billion us dollars on the importation of fish. However, two factors
had stood solidly against pisciculture in nigeria.the first is the difficulty
of getting fish seeds to stock the
ponds, due to insufficient number of hatcheries in the country. The
other factor is the feed for the fishes. Pullin and Jhingran (1985) claimed
that feed cost constitutes about 60 percent of the cost of production. Fish
meal is the highest quality nutrient source available
to fish feed manufacturers
(Lovell 1988). Presently, soybean is
very expensive because it is now processed in Nigeria for milk and many other
things as food for humans. This is why nutritionists are researching into the
replacement of fish meal and soybean by various other products like groundnut
meal (kamara, 1982), rape seed meal, sunflower seed meal (Jackson et al.,1982), cotton seed meal, parka
seed and blood meal (olaleye 1991),water lettuce meal, and lima bean.
These attempts led to studies on maggots as
food for fishes in aquaculture. Maggots develop from the eggs laid by housefly
(Musca domestica) on accumulated
poultry droppings. The fact that poultry droppings are organic materials, make
them a suitable medium for caprophagous insects like house fly to lay their
eggs. Maggots are rich in phosphorous, trace elements and the B complex
vitamins (Teotia and miller, 1973).Calvert et
al., (1971) reported 63.1 % crude protein for maggot collected from poultry
manure. Fasakin et al.,(2003)
reported crude protein content to be between 43.3%- 46.7% depending on the drying
methods. Maggots are essentially a rich source of animal protein with no
limiting essential amino acids although isoleucine and valine (essential amino
acids) were found to be minute (Ogunji et
al., 2008). Aniebo et al., (2008)
reported that tryptophan was the only essential amino acid missing in maggot
while lysine and methionine were higher in maggot than any other protein feed
stuff including fish meal. Maggots are produced in large quantities in existing
manure waste such as poultry manure(calvert,1979) and municipal organic waste
(ocio and vinaras,1979).maggots are harvested and processed into meals with no purchasing
cost. Magmeal can be effectively used as an alternative protein source in tilapia
fingerling production and can replace fish meal at a level of 100% in tilapia,
50% in carp and 100% in African catfish clarias
gariepinus (Fasakin et al., 2003,
Ogunji et al.,2007, Ogunji et al.,2008b,
Ogunji et al.,2008c, Ogunji et al.,2008d).
The utilization of maggot meal offers a good
opportunity for the development of low cost fish feeds, especially in the
developing countries where fish meal is imported very expensively and therefore
not readily available.
OBJECTIVE
Although housefly maggot meal has
been confirmed by various researchers as a good replacement for fish meal, soybean
meal and other protein sources, it has not been widely adopted for feeding fish
and live stocks due to its non availability. The aim of this study is as follows;
1
Mass-production
of house fly maggots through housefly breeding and accessing the possibility of
producing sterilized eggs.
2
Evaluating
the cost of producing maggots to determine its cost effectiveness.
JUSTIFICATION
Maggot meal has the potential to
boost aquaculture production. It has the capacity to impact a lot of economic
benefits, viable productions and management of agricultural waste (waste
recycle). With this farmers are able to engage effectively in production. The
mass-production and commercialization of maggot meal would enable greater
productivity and profitability in aquaculture and so justifies the study.