Effect of Different Levels of Plantain Peel Meal as Diet on the Productive Potentials of<i> Archachatina Marginata</i> (Swaison)

Abstract

This study determines the productive potentials of Archachatina marginata (Swaison) fed with different levels of plantain peels meal (PPM) as diets. Twenty seven juveniles of giant African snails were used for the experiments that lasted for eight weeks. The snails were allotted into three treatment groups with three replicates each. Three snails constituted a replicate laid in completely randomized design (CRD) format. The treatment groups were; feeds with concentrate only (T₁), concentrate and 50g of plantain peel meal (T₂), and concentrate with100g of plantain peel meal (T₃). The data generated were analyzed using SPSS software. Parameters measured including body weight gain, feed efficiency, shell length, shell circumference, groove diameters and the sensory attribute. Results obtained in the stuffy snail fed with concentrate with100g of plantain peel meal performed best in all parameters assessed with values of average weight gain of (177.00g), average shell length (12.60g), groove diameter (8.10) and shell circumference (18.50g) respectively. Snails fed with concentrate and 50g of PPM had 38.72% in terms of dressing percentage followed those fed with concentrate only (36.22%) while those fed with concentrate and 100mg of PPM had the least value (34.42%) respectively. From the results, it was concluded that concentrate and 100g PPM was suitable for snail diets as it gave the best performance. The palatability test revealed that meat sample of treatment 3 had the most satisfactory rating in terms of flavour and overall acceptability, indicating that PPM positively influenced the meat qualities.

Keywords: Plantain Peels, Productive Potentials, Archachatina marginata, Diet