Quality and production trait genetics of farmed European Whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus)

Title	Quality and production trait genetics of farmed European Whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus)
Written by	A. Kause, C. Quinton, S. Airaksinen, K. Ruohonen, J. Koskela
From	MTT Agrifood Research Finland Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute, Finland
Published	November 11, 2010.
Fish Species	farmed European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus)
Key Words	aquaculture, heritability, lipid, quantitative genetics, selective breeding, survival

What the research is about

Here we present phenotypic and genetic parameters for the major production and product quality traits in European Whitefish. The studied quality traits were fillet gaping, muscle texture, fillet lipid percentage recorded chemically and by the Fish Fat Meter, fillet protein%, fillet color lightness, and condition factor, and the studied production traits were harvest weight, gutted weight, carcass% of wet weight, fillet% of gutted weight, maturity age, and survival.

The 4 topics of interest were to estimate:
1) heritabilities for quality traits including fillet composition, fillet texture, fillet gaping, and color; and to estimate genetic correlations.
2) between fillet lipid percentage and other quality traits.
3) between quality and growth
4) between quality and carcass and fillet yield, maturity, and survival.

Research conclusion

Our results proved further that the Fish Fat Meter was a reliable indicator for fillet lipid % recorded from live individuals and should be useful in the selection program. The Fish Fat Meter gave repeatable readings for fillet lipid content and moderate accuracy was achieved with 4 measurements per fish.

Previous studies have shown that the Fish Fat Meter can be used as a tool to select reduced fillet lipid and to produce logical genetic relationships with production traits.