Food chain gets own back as giant snails take over : "The snail was brought to Brazil as a substitute for the common garden snail - or escargot. At first it seemed like a good idea: the snails had more meat, grew faster and were more resistant to disease. So people started growing them in their backyards to sell to restaurants."
It sounds funny when you think of your dinner rebelling and taking over your country. These African snails are 30cm long and it seemed a good idea to import them into Brazil as a source of food and income for those who wanted to nurture them. Unfortunately the African snails taste different form the local ones and aren't so welcome. They were released into the wild, took over, started carrying nasty pathogens and have now become a real problem. The Brasilians have to catch them and destroy them by hand. They need something more mechanical and easier. I 'd hate to be catching and destroying 30cm snails..but you'd have to if they are carrying horrible diseases. I hope science or industry can come up with something to help, but it's always a problem when you import species from other countries. Things just seem to get out of hand in the wrong environment and don't we know it.
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