Abstract:
Snail is a slow growing animal which takes about 10 to 14 months to reach maturity. Efforts are geared towards finding possible means of enhancing the growth of the snail so as to meet up with consumers needs while increasing the income of the farmers. This necessitated this study to determine the effect of pawpaw and water leaves additive on growth performance of Giant African Land Snail (Archachatinamarginata). Pawpaw and water leaves additives when incorporated into the compounded snail feed have the capacity of promoting their growth performance. Four research questions and four hypotheses were tested. The study adopted experimental research design with completely randomized design. Snail at the experimental farm was fed with three sample feeds. One with pawpaw leaf additive, the other with water leaf additive and the last without either of the additives. Growth rate was measured using sensitive digital weighing balance while Vainer Caliper was used to measure the length and width. The feed intake was also determined by weigh-back techniques using the same sensitive digital weighing balance. Data collected was described using arithmetic mean while t-test statistics was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that snail in group C(T2) with pawpaw leaf additive recorded the highest weight gain, while the snail in group B (T3) with water leaf additive recorded highest in length and width. Furthermore, the snail in treatment three (T3) had the highest feed consumption rate. It was therefore, concluded that, pawpaw leaf additive enhances weight gain while water leaf additive enhances growth (length and width) in addition to increasing the consumption rate or feed intake of snail. The study therefore recommend among other things that farmers and the industries that compound snail feed should adopt pawpaw and water leaves additive to increase the feed consumption of snail while promoting their growth performance. More so, the snail farmers and researcher in this field in partnership with government should sponsor seminars and workshop for snail farmers and the public who are interested in rearing snail. Institution should establish snail farm which will serve as a research and training center for the school and the host community. In summary, the growth performance of any farm animal is highly dependable on the quality of its feed among other factors. If adequate and balance feed are provided to snail in and out season, snail will perform well and more animal protein feed (snail meat) will be available in the market
