ABSTRACT

The study was on the analyses of snail meat (Archachatina marginata) and the antimicrobial properties ofits slime as affected by feed compositions. Sixty healthy and breeding snails (fifteen months old) were used for the experiment to determine the morphological characteristics of the snails. Fourty two snails were randomly divided into three groups of fourteen snails per group (consisting of fourteen snails per treatment, which replicated 2 times). Each group was assigned to each of the three i ■' treatments. Treatment I: (unripe pawpaw fruits, pawpaw leaves, potato leaves, cocoyam leaves and waterleafleaves); Treatment II: (potato leaves, cocoyam leaves and pawpaw leaves); Treatment III: (waterleafleaves, unripe pawpaw leaves and potato leaves). The feed preference and the reproductive performance were determined. The effect of the feed compositions on the growth and development ofthe snails as well as the physicochemical and antinutritional contents were also determined. The antinutritional contents of the snail slime and its antimicrobial properties were determined in a sensitivity test. The result ofthe morphological characteristics showed that the total snail weight (g) has a positive relationship with the shell parameters (P<0.05). The most preferred treatment was Treatment I: (unripe pawpaw fruits, pawpaw leaves, potato leaves, cocoyam leaves and waterleaf leaves) while the most preferred feed material was unripe pawpaw fruits. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) observed on the growth and reproductive performance ofthe snails. The reproductive performance recorded the following results: Hatchability Percentage (73.53%), incubation period (28.91days), weight of clutch (10.585g), weight of individual egg (1.408g), number of eggs per clutch (7.508) and weight of hatchling (1.592g). The physico-chemical and antinutritional contents ofthe snail meat showed a significant difference between the treatments. Snails fed with Treatment II recorded higher moisture content (79.66%) protein content (65.21%) xvi calcium content (169.22), low fat content (1.55), thiamin (0.1267mg/1000g) than Treatment I and Treatment III.'Treatment I recorded high fat content (1.607%) and low ash content (5.33) which were significantly different (P<0.05) from Treatment II. The effect of the feed composition on the antinutritional composition also had significant difference (P<0.05) among the treatments (Treatment I-III). Saponin, tannin and flavonoid in Treatment I was significantly higher than the rest of the treatment. The analysis ofthe slime showed the presence of Alkaloid, Saponin, tannin and flavonoid. The activities ofthe slime against pathogenic organisms was positive at different slime concentration (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%).The 100% slime concentration showed the highest inhibition zone (cm) of all the organisms, Aspergillus recorded the highest inhibition zone at all levels of concentration while the least was Yennicilium. This showed that 100% slime concentration had greatest effect on the microorganisms such as Aspergillius, Pennicilium, Fusarium, E.coli, etc which cause diseases. The study therefore, recommends the domestication ofA. marginata. The slime and the meat are recommended to pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies for the production of anti biotic and antifungal products.