author(s)
Owagboriaye, F.O. 1*, Banjo, A.D 1., Lawal, O.A1 and Odejayi, A.O

abstract
An experiment was conducted to evaluate the nutritional and toxic effects of soldier ant meal as a supplement for fishmeal on some haematological, biochemical and enzymological parameters of wistar albino rats. Thirty rats aged 3 weeks, were randomly assigned to the dietary treatments (T) in a complete randomized design with six rats per treatment. The rats were fed with diets containing 0% (T1) (Control), 25% (T2), 50% (T3), 75% (T4) and 100% (T5) soldier ant meal. The experimental diets and drinking water were supplied ad libitum throughout the experimental period of three weeks. There were significant reduction (p<0.05) among T2, T3, T4 and T5 for red blood cell count (RBC), packed cell volume (PCV) and haemoglobin (Hb ,) mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH) and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) compared to the control treatment T1. Also, significant increase in the white blood cell count (WBC) of the treated rats compared to the control treatment was observed. There were significant differences (p<0.05) in the biochemical parameters among the treatments and enzymological study showed significant (p<0.05) increase in the activities of glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT) and glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT) in the liver and muscle of T2, T3, T4 and T5 compared to the control treatment. It can be concluded that soldier ant meal has adverse effects on the haematological, biochemical and enzymological parameters of rats.