Evaluation of lethal and non-lethal assessment methods of muscle fat content in European eel (Anguilla anguilla)

• Main Authors: Pohlmann, Jan-Dag, Freese, Marko, Reiser, Stefan, Hanel, Reinhold
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: NRC Research Press (a division of Canadian Science Publishing) 2018
• Subjects: Anguilla anguilla
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/93098; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjfas-2018-0032

Individual fat reserves are considered a key factor for the reproductive fitness of the endangered European eel (Anguilla anguilla). In contrast to most established standards, microwave measurements enable the determination of fat contents without sacrificing individual fish, offering a broad range of ecological applications. In order to test the reliability of non-lethal assessment methods of the muscle fat content in eels, the performance of microwave measurements was compared to the prevailing standard of measuring fat in a distinct subsample of muscle tissue by solvent extraction. Results indicate that either method is prone to error due to physiological and morphological changes during the sexual maturation of eels. Since microwave measurements were systematically affected by life stage and body length, it was possible to calibrate the method accordingly, putting it at least on par with the prevailing standard and further facilitating its use for scientific purposes. The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author.