Growth Performance And Carcass Characteristics Of African Giant Land Snail (Archachatina inarginata) Fed Varying Levels Of Dietary Protein And Energy.

ABSTRACT

This experiment was conducted to determine the growth performance and carcass characteristic of the African giant land snail (Archachatina marginata) fed varying dietary protein and energy levels. Ninety (90), fifteen weeks old snails with body weight ranging from 12 — 30g were used for the experiment. The snails were grouped into nine sets and randomly assigned to nine diets in a 3 x 3 factorial arrangement involving 3 levels (16%, 20 and 24%) of protein and 3 levels (2600, 2800 and 3000Mcal/kg) of energy. Each treatment was replicated twice with 5 snails per replicate. Each group received a formulated diet with one of the following nine treatments: TI. 16%CP and 2600Mcal/kg, T2. 16%CP and 2800Mcal/kg, T3. 16%CP and 3000Mcal/kg, T4. 20%CP and 2600Mcal/kg,T5. 20%CP and 2800Mca1/kg, T6. 20%CP and 3000Mcal/kg, T7. 24%CP and 2600Mcal/kg, T8. 24%CP and 2800Mcal/kg, T9. 24%CP and 3000Mcal/kg. Moringa leaves were used as feed supplement. At the end of 1 l2days feeding trial, six animals were slaughtered after being starved for I6hours. Average daily body weight gain, average daily feed intake, shell length gain and shell width gain were recorded. The study revealed that, Average daily body weight gain, average daily feed intake, shell length gain and shell width gain were significantly higher (P>0.05) in T9 followed by T8, T6 and T5 compared to other treatments. Shell thicknss was not significantly affected by the treatments. Feed conversion ratio was best