Nutritional Composition of African Giant Land Snail (Archachatina marginata) Fed on Diet from Different Protein Sources

The study of nutritional composition of African giant land snail (Archachatina marginata) fed on diet from different protein sources: soya bean meal, fish meal and blood meal with Pawpaw leaves and pumpkin leaves serving as the controls was carried out in the Wildlife domestication unit of the Department of Forestry and Wildlife, University of Benin, Benin City. One hundred and twenty (120) snails of average weight of between 110 and 120 g were used. Eight (8) treatments (T1-T8) were established and the snails were separated in groups of fifteen (15) snails per treatment. Each group was randomly fed one of the eight diets. There were three (3) replicates per treatment with five (5) snails per replicate in a completely randomized experimental design. Twenty four (24) plastic baskets measuring 20 cm deep, 37.5 cm long and 23.8 cm wide were used to house the snails with each plastic basket containing five (5) snails. At the termination of the 12 weeks experiment, proximate analysis, mineral composition and heavy metal composition of the snail flesh were carried out. The results revealed that the crude protein content of the different treatments were significantly different (p<0.05). Results showed that Crude protein value was the highest in treatment 7 (87.5%) and the lowest in treatment 1 (61.25%) and treatment 5 (63.00%). The snails fed with protein sources also had higher crude protein than those fed with only leaves. The results of the mineral profile showed that the Calcium, Magnesium and Phosphorus of the different treatment were significantly different (p<0.05). Treatment 2 recorded the highest value (mg/kg) in Calcium (59.00) and Magnesium (71.00) while Treatment 7 had the least value in Calcium (13.0) and Treatment 1 and Treatment 8 had the least values in Magnesium (25.0). The result of the heavy metals showed that the Copper, Zinc and Lead of the different treatment were significantly different (p<0.05).

It was concluded that the snails fed on diet from different protein sources such as blood meal, fish meal and soya bean meal had higher crude protein content and also performed better than the snails fed with only leaves such as pawpaw leaves and pumpkin leaves.