Technological and Economical Considerations for Breeding Terrestrial Snails Cornu aspersum (Helix aspersa Muller) and Helix pomatia as Alternative Animal Protein Source for Human Consumption towards Ecological Protection and Sustainable Development

摘要

Farming potential of the most popular edible terrestrial snails, it was investigated within the context of efficient agricultural land use of for maximum animal protein production. The stress induced by climate changes upon the snail’s development is a considering factor, therefore snails are tested for fitness. Sel-PlexTM is used as concentrated forage additive in both 2009 and 2010 experiments involving Cornu aspersum (Helix aspersa Muller) and Helix pomatia edible terrestrial snails. Young snails of 4-7 days were tested for crawling speed as fitness component, an expression of vitality and resistance during prolonged heat waves and drought season. Using proper white led based cold lighting sources and high definition highly sensitive video recording equipment snail’s activity has been recorded. Snails crawling on graded paper allowed for measuring their speed. Seeing thru the snail’s shell due to proper light positioning, heartbeat was counted as well during the crawling. While the heartbeat rate of the snails is relatively high on all snail batches, respectively 97-102 bpm (bits per minute) due to the high temperature, the snails fed with Sel-PlexTM 0.10% have the highest speed, namely 1.5694±0.0504 mm/s followed by the snails fed with Sel-PlexTM 0.04%, averaging 1.4403±0.0323 mm/s respectively. The paper introduces for the first time the concept of “Gain to the Proposed Norm” (GPN), presented as a development indicative, a progress indices towards meeting a predetermined goal target. The yield upon slaughter is a factor that plays a major roll as to recommend Cornu aspersum species for farming as opposed to its counterpart Helix pomatia.