Comparative value of kola testa, corn-bran and rice- bran with maize for mature african giant land snail (Archachatina marginata)

Résumé

This study was designed to compare the effect of kola testa, which is rich in fibre with maize the conventional energy source and other sources of fibre such as corn bran and rice bran. A total of two hundred and forty African giant land snails (Archachatina marginata) with an average live weight of 177.69 ± 10.87g were assigned to four dietary treatments: a maize-based diet (Diet 1) served as control, in a completely randomized design. The other diets were kola testa - based (Diet 2), corn bran-based (Diet 3) and rice bran-based (Diet 4) diets. The percentage of each test ingredient and that of maize was 31.30g/100g Each treatment consisted of sixty growing snails, which were subdivided into 3 replicates of 20 snails each. The snails received the diets over a period of 20 weeks. Weight gain was significantly higher (P<0.05) for the kola testa-based diet in comparison with the corn and rice bran-based diets. Depression of magnesium and iron in the shell, flesh and fluid of snails fed corn and rice bran diets was observed. The trial revealed that kola testa-based diet compared favorably well with the corn and rice bran-based diets.