Slaughter yield and morpho-physiological traits of Russian Sturgeon (Acipenser Gueldenstaedtii) with different live weight cultivated in industrial aquaculture

Georgi Georgiev, Lyudmila Nikolova

Abstract: The study was carried out with six-summer-old male Russian sturgeon raised in an industrial cage farm. At the end of the vegetation season, two groups of fish were formed: with lower (3010.80 ± 72.96 g) and higher (4910.0 ± 100.30 g) live weight. It was found that fish of both weight groups were characterized by high slaughter yield and a small proportion of non-edible parts. As the total weight of fish increased, the relative share of the head, gills, pyloric gland and bone plates decreased significantly. Fish with lower live weight had significantly higher slaughter and edible yields and no significant difference was found between the groups concerning the yield for the processing industry. With the increase in live weight, the relative share of meat in the whole body and in the carcass decreased, but the differences between the groups were insignificant. According to all the exterior characteristics, a significant difference was found between the groups in favour of fish with higher total weight. However, in the case of exterior indices, a significant difference was found only in the high-backed index in favour of the smaller fish. In the interior indices, a significant difference in favour of the larger fish was found for viscerosomatic index (38.4%) and gonadosomatic index (91.2%). For other interior indices, with the exception of heartsomatic index, higher values were also reported in fish of higher live weight, but the differences were insignificant.

Keywords: condition indices; fillet yield; morphometrics; slaughter analysis; sturgeon

Date published: 2022-11-02