ISSN: 2578-4994
Authors: Ogunyemi OO*
The effects of isocaloric plant protein diets on the growth performance of African giant land snail Archachatina marginata were investigated for 28 weeks. A total of 120 juvenile A. marginata snails were used. Ten snails were randomly assigned to each of the four experimental diets containing 12%, 14%, 16%, and 18% crude protein from plant source respectively. Each diet constitutes a treatment and each treatment was replicated three times with 10 snails per replicate. Data on growth parameters were collected bi-weekly. Results showed that the performance of snails fed was significantly (p<0.05) influenced by levels of dietary protein. The snail fed with 16% level of crude protein had the highest final somatic body weight (42.6g) and the superior feed conversion ratio (2.35) while beyond 16% level of crude protein the growth response declined. It was evident from this study that A. marginata snails fed 16% crude protein of plant source were the best in growth performance and that snails could be raised on diets comprising of crude protein exclusively from plant source.
Keywords: Growth Performance; Experimental Diet; Feed Conversion Ratio; Crude Protein
