Wenying Hong , Rudi Mai

Tropical Biological Resources Research Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resouces, Sanya, 5720
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Molecular Ecology and Conservation, 2025, Vol. 15, No. 4   
Received: 18 Jun., 2025    Accepted: 26 Jul., 2025    Published: 15 Aug., 2025

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The African land snail (mainly referring to the East African giant snail Achatina fulica) has been listed as one of the 100 most malignant invasive species worldwide. This study introduces the invasion routes, ecosystem impacts and agricultural economic losses of the African land snail, and discusses the current prevention and control strategies and management challenges. The results show that the invasion of African land snails can lead to a decline in biodiversity by competing with local species, cause severe yield reduction by feeding on crops, and increase public health risks by spreading zoonotic parasites. Case analyses from various regions show that this species has caused ecological and agricultural disasters in Asia, Latin America and the Pacific Islands. Countries have invested huge costs to control its harm. For instance, Florida in the United States spent 23 million US dollars to eliminate it when it broke out again in 2011. Although current prevention and control methods include manual capture, chemical drugs and biological control, etc., they face challenges such as limited effect, side effects and insufficient public participation in implementation. Research on invasion risk assessment and early warning should be strengthened, and policy supervision and public education should be improved to prevent and control the further spread of the African land snail. This research is of great significance for balancing human activities and the ecological environment.

African land snail; Invasive species; Ecological impact; Agricultural losses; Parasitic transmission