Response of African Giant Land Snail (Archachatina marginata) to Graded Levels of Asplenium barteri Leaf Meal Supplement

Abstract

The effect of feeding graded level (0, 5, 10 and 15%) of Aspelenium barteri Fern leaf meal supplement to growing Archachatina marginata on growth indices, organ weight and carcass characteristics was investigated. One hundred and twenty (120) growing snails (Archachatina marginata) were randomly allocated to four treatments of 30 snails each, replicated three times with 10 snails per replicate in a completely randomized design. The experiment lasted for six (6) weeks. In this study Carcass weight, gut content, feed intake, body weight, shell length/width and FCR differed significantly (P< 0.05) whereas live weight, shell weight, meat content, foot length and foot thickness were not significantly different (P> 0.05) among treatment diets. Diet with 15% inclusion of FLM was considered suitable for best performance.