Organoleptic evaluation of <i>Archachatina marginata</i> fed rumen content dietary inclusion

Abstract

There is inadequate information on quality feedstuff for large scale production and all year round availability of snails in Nigeria.The research was  conducted to investigate the organoleptic properties of the African giant land snails (Archachatina marginata). Thirty two snails were randomly allotted into four dietary treatments of varied levels of 0%, 5%, 10% and 15% rumen content inclusion. Each treatment was replicated with four snails  per pen in  a completely randomized design. The snails were reared in mini paddock. Feed and water were supplied ad-libitum. At the end of the eight weeks period of feeding trials, two snails were harvested at random from the replicates of each of the four treatments, sacrificed, processed and analyzed. Based on appearance, taste and aroma of the snails fried and stewed with spices and the other one steamed with spices, preference ranking in descending order revealed 15% (6·85) rumen content inclusion had the highest mean preference followed by 5% (6·53) inclusion for the fried snail with spices and 0% (6.65) inclusion had the highest ranking followed by 15% (6.53) rumen content inclusion for the snail steamed with spices. The treatments had no appreciable effect on the nutrient composition and sensory quality of the snail meat. It can be  concluded that growing snails can utilize rumen content inclusion thereby increasing the feed data base for snail production in the Tropics.

Keywords: rumen contents, Archachatina marginata snails, sensory evaluation, feed per grain