Comparative reproduction performance of Giant African Land Snail (Archachatina marginata) fed with the leguminous plant Leucaena leucocephala

The study was carried out between July and October 2022 at the sub–station of the Faculty of Agriculture Research and Teaching farm to assess the reproductive performance of Archachatina marginata fed the leguminous Leucaena leucocephala leaf meal as feed additive. 208 adult snails were randomly partitioned into 4 treatments and 4 repetitions of 13 comparable snails (weight and size). The treatment T0 (control) received only the experimental diet as described while three other treatments received not only diet but, L. leucocephala leaf meal at 0.25%, 0.5% and 0.75% for a period of 12 weeks. In each treatment, every morning, the substrate of each breeding bucket was stirred entirely and minutely to collect the eggs to determine the laying and morphometric characteristics of the eggs. The eggs were then placed 10 cm deep in loose soil substrates until hatching to evaluate the characteristics of the fecundity. The unhatched eggs were opened, and the state of embryonic development observed to determine early embryonic mortality rate and late embryonic mortality. At the end of the experiment, animals of each replicate were sacrificed; the hemolymph was collected determine the total cholesterol and protein. The results showed that the characteristics of reproduction were affected with graded level of L. leucocephala. The highest number of eggs laid (17.29 ± 13.44) and the number of clutches (268.91) was recorded in animals receiving 0.5% and 0.75% L. leucocephala in the diet respectively while the highest value of fecundation rate (95.50 ± 8.80), hatch rate (94.55 ± 9.36), and hatchability (98.99 ± 3.15) was registered in the treatment that received 0.75%. The highest value of total protein and cholesterol was recorded in the same treatment. In conclusion 0.75% of L. leucocephala can be added in the diet of adult snail to increase its reproductive performance.