FISH SKELETAL DEFORMITIES: A MAJOR IMPACT ON AQUACULTURE WITH DIFFERENT ETIOLOGIES.

摘要

Skeletal deformities still represent a major bottleneck for fish farmers as they are responsible for a loss of several millions of euros. Losses due to deformities occur mainly at two levels: At hatcheries, by reducing larval survival rate and growthefficiency in malformed fish; and at on-growing farms, where malformed market size fish have to be discarded or sold at lower values. Therefore, skeletal deformities hamper fish production and increase production costs (Michie, 2001; Koumoundouros et al., 2002). Moreover, skeletal deformities negatively affect fish welfare, representing a major issue in current aquaculture in relation to the consumer's perception of the industry as a healthy, environmentally and bioethical sector producing animal protein. Thus, reducing the incidence of larval deformities would reduce the production costs, and improve the quality of aquaculture products and its perception for the consumer.