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Effect of Humus supplement on growth, digestibility and nutritional efficiency of Juvenile Helix aspersa snail

Abstract:

Humus is important in the diet of Helix aspersa and other species of edible snails although its nutritional contribution is not well known. In this study the effect of a humus supplement on the growth, nutritional efficiency and digestibility of the snail H. aspersa in its juvenile stages was evaluated. The experiment was glone-under laboratory conditions using a completely randomized design with two treatments (diets) with ten replications of 20 snails: Diet I, commercial concentrate for laying hens; Diet II, the same commercial concentrate plus a commercial humus supplement for earthworms. When H. aspersa juvenile snails grow in the presence of humus, they feed regularly on the supplement and grow significantly faster (478.71±8.26 mg without humus, diet I; 912.21±9.42 mg with humus, diet II; p≤50.01). Humus also increases the availability of the diet's organic nutrients, improving digestibility of dry matter (54.21±2.12% without humus, diet I; 80.13±1.37% with humus, diet II; p≤50.001), raw energy (56.32±3.13% without humus, diet I; 65.56±4.21% with humus, diet II; p≤0.001), crude protein (63.14±3.41% without humus, diet I; 74.56±2.82% with humus; diet II; p≤50.01), neutral detergent fiber (56.68±4.84% without humus, diet I; 66.64±3.21% with humus, diet II; p≤50.01) and acidic detergent fiber (35.32±3.32% without humus, diet I; 47.42±2.13% with humus, diet II; p≤0.001). Therefore, the feed conversion ratio was improved (1.12±0.14 without humus, diet I; 0.78±0.11 with humus, diet II; p≤0.01) and the protein efficiency ratio (6.40±0.09 without humus, diet I; 11.09±0.15 with humus, diet II; p≤50.01).