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ABSTRACT
This study was carried out to access the prevalence and physical characterization of freshwater snails sold at New Benin and Uwa markets in Egor and Oredo Local Government Areas of Edo State within the period of October 2020 to March 2021. Samples were bought and transported in perforated bags to the Laboratory. The morphometric characteristics of the freshwater snails were determined using Vernier caliper and weight were taken using a weighing balance. The snails were weighed and the total length, total width, aperture length and width and shell thickness were measured to ascertain their morphometric indexes. All snails bought were kept alive in a plastic bowl in the laboratory where they were identified to species level. The snails were sorted and counted. The result showed that the water snail was found to be Pila africana. In terms of abundance it was gathered that it was abundant at the peak of rainy season and the price was also affected by season as it was cheaper in rainy season than in dry season. The respondents also agreed that the business was a profitable venture while about 14.0% said it was not profitable. 98.0% of the respondents made more profit from the business during rainy season. Based on size, the respondents do not know the season in which the water snail was bigger and could not identify sexes by just virtually looking and, sex did not also affect the demand for Pila africana . The constraints faced by snail sellers were high mortality, inadequate finance, transportation and inadequacy of enough water snails. Therefore, the results from this study can be used as a baseline key of identification for the species.
