Assessment of Nutritional Potentials and Economic Significance of Sesame Seed Meal (Sesamum indicum) in the Diet of Growing Snails (Archachatina marginata)

The purpose of this study was to assess the economic effects of replacing the groundnut cake meal portion of the diet with sesame seed meal (SSM) on the performance traits, carcass analysis, and cost benefits of the feeding strategy. One hundred and twenty snails, weighing an average of 175±2.7g, were divided into four dietary regimens at random and reproduced three times. Each replication had ten snails in it, following a completely randomized design. Four diets were formulated to contain SSM at 0% (SSM1) Control, 50% (SSM2), 75% (SSM 3), 100% (SSM 4) as replacement for soybean meal fraction in the diet of growing snails. The diets were formulated to contain about 24% crude protein and energy of 2400 kcal/kgME. Data were collected on Feed intake, weight gain, shell length, thickness and width, Feed conversion ratio and cost per weight gain. The findings indicate that the different inclusion levels of SSM in the diet had a significant impact on the mean total feed intake (P<0.05). The feed intake and mean total weight gain showed similar trends. (P<0.05) was the greatest mean weight gain. The ratio of feed intake to weight gain, or feed conversion ratio (FCR), was essentially constant across all treatments. The diet with the highest level of SSM4 (100%) inclusion had the lowest cost per weight (CPW) gain (N170.61), while the control diet with 0% SSM1 inclusion had the highest CPW gain (N221.88). It is however interesting also to note that as feed intake (kg) increases, CPW (N) gain reduces. The dressing percent (DP) of the snail was significantly influenced by the dietary treatments.