Organoleptic evaluation of Archachatina marginata fed rumen content

There is inadequate information on quality feedstuff for large scale production and all yearround availability of snails in Nigeria.The research was conducted to investigate theorganoleptic properties of the African giant land snails (Archachatina marginata). Thirtytwosnails were randomly allotted into four dietary treatments of varied levels of 0%, 5%,10% and 15% rumen content inclusion. Each treatment was replicated with four snails perpen in a completely randomized design. The snails were reared in mini paddock. Feed andwater were supplied ad-libitum. At the end of the eight weeks period of feeding trials, twosnails were harvested at random from the replicates of each of the four treatments, sacrificed,processed and analyzed. Based on appearance, taste and aroma of the snails fried andstewed with spices and the other one steamed with spices, preference ranking in descendingorder revealed 15% (6·85) rumen content inclusion had the highest mean preferencefollowed by 5% (6·53) inclusion for the fried snail with spices and 0% (6.65) inclusion hadthe highest ranking followed by 15% (6.53) rumen content inclusion for the snail steamedwith spices.