Effect of feeding different levels of protein supplementation on the growth performance of young snails (Archachatina marginata) in the western highlands of Cameroon

Abstract

This study aimed at improving the growth performance of young snails (Archachatina marginata) fed different levels of protein. This study was carried out between the months of January 2020 to April 2021 at the Helvy Farms-WVED Cameroon located at Station Bamenda. 150 growing snails Archachatina marginata snails weighing between 2.5g and 4.5g, full shells free of any form of injury carefully selected from among the many snails hatched and fed same diets for a period of four weeks before the commencement of the study were monitored for growth performance. These one-month-old snails were randomly allotted to four treatments of different protein levels (16%CP, 18%CP, 20%CP and 22%CP) and a control (natural plant feed) replicated three times with 10 snails each per replicate for a period of 10months during which data were collected. The snails were monitored daily, watered and fed, the snails in treatments T1, T2, T3, T4 received both the natural plant feed (30 g) and the formulated diet (30 g) meanwhile, the snails in the control received 60g of the natural plant feed daily. At the beginning of the trials and after every two weeks, the snails were weighed with a 0.01g precision balance and the shell lengths and widths taken using a vernier caliper of 0.02mm accuracy. The results showed that, average weight gain (39.17 ± 1.45 g), average feed intake (42.54 ± 1.65 g), percentage survival (90.00 ± 0.00), shell length gain (7.66 ± 1.45 cm) shell weight gain (5.73 ± 0.96 cm) were significantly higher (P<0.05) in snails fed 22% protein. We can therefore recommend that 22% CP be included in the diet of Archachatina marginata breeding snails for better growth performance.