Advanced Journal of Environmental Science and Technology (AJEST) ISSN: 2136-3468, Vol. 6 (1), pp. 259-265, May, 2021.  © Advanced Scholars Journals

Full length Research paper

Parasitological Analyses and Soil physicochemical properties in African Giant Land Snail (Archachatinamargenata) reared withdump soil

Osuji CA^1*, Ugwu OC², Oguh CE³, Augustine O⁴ and Ejiofor UM¹

^*1Department of Biochemistry, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria

²Department of Pharmacology, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Nigeria 

³Department of Surveillance and Epidemiology, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Abuja, Nigeria

⁴Department of Pharmacology, University of Benin, Benin city Nigeria

*Corresponding author’s Email:[email protected]

Accepted 28^th April, 2021.

Abstract 

Snail drive better in waste dumpareas, due to the fact that decayed and composted wastes enhance and increases nutrients to the snails, despites the important snails are readily exposed to contaminants. The study investigate some parasite and soil physiochemical properties in African giant land snail (Archachatinamargenata) reared with dump soil. Dump contaminated soil samples were collected at 30 cm depth with the aid of soil auger for snail farming and soilwhere no activitiesserved as control. A total of 18 juvenile snails of similar weights was used for the study. The experiment lasted for three month (90 days), during which the snails were subjected to similar dietary reign and equal quantity of feed. The soil samples were analyzed for physicochemical properties such as pH, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, organic matter, total carbon and exchangeable cations (i.e., K⁺, Mg²⁺ and Na⁺) before and after farming using standard methods. Standard methods was used to determine intestinal parasites such as Ascarislumbricoides eggs, Entamoebahistolytica cyst and Giardia intestinalis cysts on the snail after farming. The result showed a significant different (p<0.05) in soil physicochemical properties between soil from dump area and links snail farm soil, except K⁺ which is not significant. Ascarislumbricoides ova and Entamoebahistolyticacryst parasites were mostly found in snails reared with dump soil than the control snails with normal soil(no activities).This study showed that snails reared with dump soil highly accumulate parasite and there was a change in the physicochemical properties within the two soils which indicate the sources of parasite.

Keywords: Archachatinamargenata, parasites, physicochemical, dump soil, snail