Growth Performance of Broiler Chicken Fed Increasing Levels of Limicolaria aurora (Gardensnail) as Replacement for Fish Meal

The study was designed to investigate the response of broiler chickens to diets containing levels of Limicolaria aurora meal as replacement for fish meal. The experiment involved five treatments with three replicates per treatment in a Completely Randomized Design, and was carried out in the Teaching and Research Farm of the University of Calabar, Nigeria, between July, 2014 and Sept., 2014. A total of three hundred, one week old unsexed broiler chicks were randomly allotted to five dietary treatments consisting of three replicates of 20 birds each. Five experimental diets were formulated such that the control diet (Treatment 1 (T1)) contained 4% fish meal (FM), which was replaced with 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of Limicolaria aurora meal for other treatments: T2, T3, T4 and T5 respectively. After 21 days of feeding the experimental (starter) diet, two hundred and forty of the birds were re-randomized and alloted to 5 finisher diet treatments, each with three replicates, and the same levels of replacement of FM with LM. The results of the proximate composition showed that ash content was higher in FM (14.39) than in LM (7.83), while ether extract content in LM (7.00) was higher than in fishmeal FM (5.11). Crude protein and crude fiber contents of LM and FM were not statistically different between treatments. Only crude fibre utilization showed significant (P=0.05) increase as the level of LM in the diet increased. Feed intake at both the starter and finisher phases did not differ significantly between diet groups. The final body weight, weight gain and feed conversion ratio were significantly (P=.05) superior at 50% replacement level, while differences between these parameters at the 50%, 75% and 100% replacement levels were not statistically significant. The results indicate that significantly (P=.05) lower performances in respect of the above parameters were observed in broilers in the control and the 25% replacement diet groups. The abdominal fat deposit did not differ across the treatment groups. Cost of feed per kg and cost of feed per kg weight gain (N) increased significantly as the level of LM increased in the diet. It was concluded that LM can replace FM in broiler chickens diet at the 50% replacement level with lower feed cost and improved growth performance.