Abstract
The study was conducted to examine the performance of growing snails (Archachatina marginata) fed with formulated feed supplemented with calcium from four sources (Agricultural Limestone, Bone meal, Egg shell and Snail shell) in the domestication unit of Department of Forest Resources and Wildlife Management, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, Benin City. A total of sixty (60) juvenile snails with average weight of 97.85±2.06g were randomly allotted to five treatment groups (T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5), replicated three times with four snails per replicate in a completely randomized design. The treatment was Agricultural limestone (T1), Bone Meal (T2), Egg shell (T3), Snail shell (T4) and control: natural feed (T5). The feeding trials lasted for 16 weeks. The results showed no significant differences (P>0.05) in weight gain (12.50a ± 3.15), shell length (0.35a ± 0.06) and shell width increment (0.163 ± 0.03) of the snails under the various diet. Increases in body weight, shell length, shell width was recorded in all the treatments with the highest recorded in snails (Archachatina marginata) under feed formulated with the snail shells. The result showed significant differences (P
Highlights
Snails refer to rather wild variety of shell bearing invertebrate animal nonsegmented bodied cold-blooded mollusk with hard and slippery skin
The percentage crude fibre decrease with increase in protein, it ranged from 12.11% to 26.38% with the highest (26.38%) value recorded in the control meal while the least (12.11%) was observed in the feed formulated with the bone meal
The results showed that there was no significant difference (p>0.05) in mean shell width increment of the snails among the sources of calcium fed to the snail (Table 4) the mean shell width increment varied with the highest (0.163±0.03), recorded in the snails fed with feed formulated with snail shell while others are (0.161±0.02) 0.151±0.03, 0.0150±0.02 and 0.133±0.02 for feed formulated with bone meal, agricultural limestone, egg shell and control respectively
Summary
Snails refer to rather wild variety of shell bearing invertebrate animal nonsegmented bodied cold-blooded mollusk with hard and slippery skin. They could be terrestrial, and aquatic of both African and European origin used by man as food [1]. Snails are highly appreciated in many countries for its nutritive and medical values, the richness of snail meat in terms of nutrients has caused the demand for snail to increase over the years [2] They are known to be rich in important minerals including potassium, phosphorus, iron, and low in cholesterol and fats [3]. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of varied calcium sources on the growth and performance of African giant land snail (Archachatina marginata)
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