Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stoneville, Mississippi » Warmwater Aquaculture Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #417405
Research Project: Improving the Productivity and Quality of Catfish Aquaculture

Location: Warmwater Aquaculture Research Unit

Title: Effects of acute environmental and handling exposure on physiology and fillet quality of market-sized Channel Catfish

Author
item ALLEN, PETER - Mississippi State University
item SHAO, W - Mississippi State University
item ALLRED, SHAY - Mississippi State University
item JONES, JACOB - Mississippi State University
item SCHILLING, M - Mississippi State University
item BAKER, BETH - Mississippi State University

Submitted to: Aquaculture Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/16/2020
Publication Date: 1/31/2020
Citation: Allen, P.J., Shao, W., Allred, S., Jones, J.H., Schilling, M.W., Baker, B. 2020. Effects of acute environmental and handling exposure on physiology and fillet quality of market-sized Channel Catfish. Aquaculture Research. 51:1854-1866. https://doi.org/10.1111/are.14536.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/are.14536

Interpretive Summary: Fillet quality is very important to maintain customer satisfaction in the largest aquaculture industry in the US, the commercial catfish industry. Red fillet has been found to be a common problem resulting in rejection of fillets and economic loss by processors. However, the cause or causes of red fillet are not known. Researchers at Mississippi State University exposed catfish to common water quality stressors associated with production ponds and stressors associated with harvest to determine if they could cause red fillet. Although fish had measurable signs of physiological stress, including mortality, the stressors did not directly lead to red fillet. Researchers concluded that red fillet was not directly caused by physical environmental stressors, and suggested further investigation into biological stressors.

Technical Abstract: Catfish Ictalurus spp. are subjected to stressful conditions during harvest, which may be linked to fillet coloration and quality. Poor water quality in ponds, socks or hauling tanks, as well as handling stress, have been suggested to cause red fillets in catfish; however, chronic exposure has not resulted in red fillets. Short-term occurrences of extreme poor water quality, particularly low dissolved oxygen, high carbon dioxide and high temperature, may occur in ponds or during harvest. Therefore, market-sized Channel Catfish Ictalurus punctatus were acutely exposed (12 hr) to one of the three water quality treatments while confined during a simulated socking procedure and evaluated for stress responses by means of change in blood parameters and fillet quality. In fish subjected to the extreme treatment, hematocrit, plasma cortisol, glucose and lactate levels increased, with 22% mortality, indicating highly stressful conditions. In fish subjected to moderate and typical (control treatments, cortisol increased but a lack of change or decrease in glucose and lactate indicated minimal anaerobic metabolism. Only one red fillet was produced by the extreme treatment and two by the typical treatment; therefore, the results suggest red fillets are not a product of poor water quality compounded by handling during harvest.