{"id":62576,"date":"2026-09-20T13:02:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T07:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=62576"},"modified":"2026-09-20T16:32:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T11:02:51","slug":"giant-african-snail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/giant-african-snail\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant African Snail"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Giant African Snail Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) has launched a special project to eradicate African snails (Lissachatina fulica) following a request from the Agriculture department.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Giant African Snail<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the common name for several large African land snail species.\u00a0 The most damaging of these <\/span><b>pests is Lissachatina fulica.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is one of the <\/span><b>world\u2019s worst invasive species.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>native to East Africa<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> but it has been widely <\/span><b>introduced to other parts of the world through the pet trade<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, as a food resource, and by accidental introduction.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Habitat<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It thrives in <\/span><b>warm tropical climates<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with mild temperatures all year round and high humidity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is found in <\/span><b>agricultural areas, coastal areas and wetlands,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> natural and planted forests, riparian zones, scrublands and shrublands, and the urban zones.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Diet :<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Mature, adult snails generally feed on decaying organic matter, including garbage, fallen fruit and animal manure.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Key Features<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>hermaphrodite.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adult snails are very large <\/span><b>with a long, narrow, cone-shaped shell.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The shell is usually light brown with darker brown vertical stripes.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Health Impact:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The snails can <\/span><b>carry the rat lungworm parasite<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (<a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/angiostrongylus-cantonensis\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Angiostrongylus cantonensis<\/strong><\/a>), which can cause <\/span><b>eosinophilic meningitis in humans.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/kerala\/kau-begins-special-project-to-eradicate-african-snails\/article71476957.ece\/amp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Giant African Snail is a highly invasive land snail, with Lissachatina fulica among the most damaging species, native to East Africa. Read more about Giant African Snail, Habitat, Food, Health Impact, News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":62584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2577,21,22,23],"class_list":["post-62576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-giant-african-snail","tag-prelims-pointers","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62576"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125358,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62576\/revisions\/125358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}