Influence of Diet and Dietary Crude Protein Content on the Reproductive Performance of the Snail Archachatina marginata (Swainson, 1821)

Abstract

The pressure to collect snails due to the high demand for their meat has encouraged snail farming. However, snail farming faces a number of problems, including the formulation of a feed that meets the nutritional requirements of snails. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of plant-based diets and three concentrated diets, and then to determine the protein level to be incorporated into a concentrated feed capable of positively influencing the reproductive performance of the Archachatina marginata snail. The study was conducted on 225 Arch. marginata juveniles fed two plant-based diets (R1 and R2) and 3 concentrated meal diets (R3, R4 and R5) with different protein contents (10.5%, 14% and 17.5%) for two years in experimental rearing. The R1 diet consists of Lactuca sativa, Carica papaya, Brassica oleracea, Cecropia peltata, Laportea aestuans and Phaulopsis falcisepala. The R2 diet was obtained by adding Leucena leucocephala leaves to R1. The first eggs were laid at 12 months on the R1 and R2 green forage diets and at 10 months on the R3 concentrate diet. Snails fed concentrated diets R4 and R5 laid their eggs at 9 months. The number of eggs laid per clutch and the average number of eggs per clutch in the animals fed the concentrated diets were statistically higher than those obtained with the vegetable diets (between 0.34 and 0.45 clutches and between 6.10 and 7.46 eggs respectively). The concentrated diets significantly improved the reproductive performance of Arch. marginata compared with the vegetable diets. In addition, reproductive performance was optimal on the R5 diet with the highest protein incorporation rate.