RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 1 depicts the proximate composition and nutrient composition of cockroach, earthworm and soldier ants. Nutrients were generally higher in cockroach and soldier ants, except for crude protein that was higher in earthworm (50.22%) than cockroach (9.26%) and soldier ants (12.00%). Nutrient distribution recorded in this work agreed with literature values for fish meal (Aduku, 1993) and termite (Fadiyimu et al., 2003) but higher than results reported for shrimps waste meal (Fanimo et al., 1998) and millipede (Abulude and Folorunso, 2003). The protein contents from the samples would be very appropriate as livestock feed. The fibre contents of earthworm (1.36%) and cockroach (7.52%) were low while that of soldier ants (20.13%) was high. Moisture contents were low (8.53-13.85%). This accounts for low deterioration of the samples if left unprocessed for a long time. The presence of ash content in all the samples is a measure of the likely mineral contents in the entire sample. The results of the mineral analysis are shown in Table 2. Calcium was high in cockroach (620 mg 100 g^-1) and soldier ants (800 mg 100 g^-1) but not detected in earthworm. If the amount of calcium is adequate in the animal feed, iron is utilized to better advantage. Also, Ca, P and vitamin D combine together to prevent rickets in young animals and osteomalacia (adult rickets) (Adeyeye, 2002). The samples were rich sources of potassium (230-320 mg 100 g^-1) and sodium (68-200 mg 100 g^-1). Plants and animal tissues are rich sources of potassium, thus a dietary lack is seldom found, sodium is widely distributed in feeds, with plants containing less than animal sources (Adeyeye, 2002). The samples were good sources of iron. Cadmium was not detected. Lead was not detected in cockroach. The levels of lead in the samples should be of major health concern because of the toxicity of the element at very low concentration, particularly their effects on the nervous system of livestock animals and man. The iron present in these samples may be well absorbed as in comparison with meat (Bender, 1992).

Table 1:	Proximate composition of samples (% DM, n = 3)
a(mean±SE), n = number of determinations

Table 2:	Metal (mg 100 g-1 DM) composition of samples (n = 2, p<0.05)
ND-Not detected, a(mean±SE), n = number of determinations

Table 3:	Table phosphorus (P), phytate P and phytate concentration (mg 100-1 DM), phytate P (%) of total P and calculated Ca: phytate molar ratio of samples
a(mean±SE), n = number of determinations

Not only is the iron of meat well absorbed, it enhances the absorption of iron from other sources (Adeyeye, 2002). Table 3 shows the total phytate in earthworm, cockroach and soldier ants, the phytate content may vary depending upon the variety, climatic conditions, locations, type of soil and time (season) during which they were obtained. Similar differences were reported for millipedes obtained from different sources (Abulude and Folorunso, 2003). Abulude (2001) reported values ranging from 390 to 1170 mg 100 g^-1 DM phytate in 10 different varieties of vegetables. The availability of P in the form of phytate depends on the species the age of the animal and the level of phytate activity in the intestinal tracts of species in question. The utilization of natural phytate in the rumen of ruminants is attributed to the presence of phytate (Reddy et al., 1982). Calculated Ca: phytate ratios for the samples ranged between 0.03 and 0.04. These values were lower than the critical value of 6:1 (Wise, 1983). The phytate P ranged between 106 (cockroach) and 137 mg 100^-1 DM (earthworm). These values were similar or in agreement with the concentrations found for Cuban boa (Ogunkoya et al., 2006). There is some indication that the ability of the swine to utilize phytate P improves with age and chicks utilize phytate P from foodstuffs of plant origin for deposition in the growing bones (Reddy et al., 1982). Phytate P expressed as percentage of total P ranged between 31.1 and 36.6%. These values were relatively low compared to those obtained by Abulude et al. (2006) for some wild under-utilized crop seed and Abulude (2001) for vegetables. The availability of phosphorus from phytate P source has been found to range from 20 to 60% with an average value of 3% for pigs (Reddy et al., 1982).

CONCLUSIONS

The nutrient compositions of these samples showed their potentials as good sources of protein, fat, carbohydrates and macro- elements. However, the high phytate content present in these samples may interfere with mineral absorption. These samples may have to be subjected to various processing methods, such as cooking, autoclaving and soaking to reduce or eliminate the phytate contents.