Growth Performance and Carcass Characteristics of African Giant Land Snail (Archachatina Marginata) Fed Different Vegetable Based Diets

Abstract

Growth performance and carcass characteristics of Archachatina marginata was investigated using five vegetable leaves namely; Carica papaya, Moring oleifera, Calopogonium mucunoides, Mucuna purensis and Banana, in Makurdi, Nigeria. The aim of the study was to determine which vegetable leaf was most suitable for feeding the snails. 150 healthy snails were weighed and randomly allotted to 5 treatments with 3 replicates per treatment. Each replicate contained 10 snails. The snails were reared in plastic cages measuring 37x25x23cm³ in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD).Water containers were washed daily before serving clean water to the snails. Vegetables from the environment were fed to the snails on daily basis. The leaves were weighed once every week before and after feeding. Weight of intake and gain was determined by difference. The experiment lasted for 10 weeks, at the end of which two snails per replicate were randomly selected, starved for 24 hours and sacrificed for carcass analysis. Leaves were sundried for three days, milled and stored in air tight container for chemical analysis. Proximate composition of the leaves was determined by Standard Methods (AOAC 2016). Data obtained was statistically analysed using One way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) in SPSS version 16. Duncan New Multiple Range Test was used to separate means. The results obtained showed that Dry Matter (DM) content of the leaves ranged from 87.4% in Carica papaya (CpLM) to 90.0% in Calopogonium mucunoides (CmLM). Crude protein (cp) ranged from 15.3% in Banana to 22.1% in Mucuna purensis (MpLM). Crude fibre (CF) level of 18.8% in Banana Leaf (BLM) was highest, while the least CF level of 4.7% was observed in Moring oleifera (MoLM). Highest (p<0.05) total feed intake (55.90g) was observed in snails fed CpLM, followed by those fed MoLM (34.53g.). Other group of snails fed other leaves all lost weight. Mortality was highest (50%) in snails fed CpLM and least (10%) in snails fed CmLM. Carcasses of the snails showed higher (p<0.05) edible weight in snails fed CpLM (34.87%), followed by those fed MoLM (26.80%). Feed did not have any effect (p<0.05) on dressing percentage. This study has demonstrated that among the five vegetable leaves, pawpaw leaf was better than all for feeding Archachatina marginata. For better results, high mortality of snails fed pawpaw leaves needs investigation. Supplementation of pawpaw leaf protein could also be investigated for optimum performance.

Keywords: Growth performance, Carcass characteristics, Archachatina marginata, Vegetable leaves