NUTRITIONAL POTENTIAL OF AFRICAN YAM BEAN MEAL AS SUBSTITUTE FOR SOYBEAN MEAL IN THE DIETS OF GROWING SNAILS (ARCHACHATINA MARGINATA)

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the effect of replacing soyabean meal with different levels of African Yam Bean meal (AYB) in the diet of growing snails. A total of one hundred and twenty growing snails (Archachatina marginata) of mean weight 73.42 ± 2.5g of about 3 months of age were used for the feeding trial. Four diets were formulated to contain African Yam beans (AYB) at 0% (AYB1 ) Control, 50% (AYB2), 75% (AYB3) and 100% (AYB4) as replacement for maize fraction in the diet of growing snails. Completely randomized design was used for the trial and each treatment was replicated thrice with 10 snails per replicate. The mean feed intake in 0% and 75% replacement of SBM with AYB were not significantly affected by the dietary treatments (P> 0.05). The mean weight gain in AYB1, AYB2 and AYB3 were relatively the same (P>0.05). The feed conversion ratio (FCR) was relatively the same in all the treatments. The mean shell width increment was relatively the same across the treatments (P> 0.05). The lowest cost/weight gain was recorded in the diet containing 75% AYB as replacement for soybean meal while the highest cost/weight gain was recorded in the diet containing 100%SBM. African Yam Bean meal could be harnessed as alternative feed resource for snail production. It could be recommended that 75% of AYB could be used to replace soybean meal fraction of the diet in order to reduce feed cost