Carcass-waste yields and nutritional composition of strains of Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822) as index traits for selective breeding

The role of carcass evaluation techniques in aquaculture genetics and breeding cannot be over-emphasized. Knowledge of growth potentials concerning carcass quality has improved genetic selection techniques and management. Therefore, this study was conducted on the carcass yields, by-yields, anatomical separation, and nutritional quality of Clarias gariepinus strains collected from river Rima and two other population groups from two different fish farms with records of a pure cultured strain of C. gariepinus and another farm with a pedigree of artificial crosses. The flesh weight (FW) of the river Rima (55.50±2.97) population strain was higher (p<0.05) than the two cultured population strains. Population strain C (47.79±1.17) recorded the lowest significant (p<0.05) flesh weight (FW). In comparison, B (49.12±2.68) population strain had an intermediately significant (p<0.05) flesh weight. The coefficients of variations (CV) were almost the same for all the three population groups except the gutted weight, where the river Rima (wild) population strains had the highest CV. This study recommended that attention be given to improving the cultured stock/strains in terms of resistance to diseases, heritability for improving healthy growth rate, feed conversion efficiency, and general hardiness, harnessing the diverse wild strains. In addition, this study recommended further investigation, including the amino acid profile and organoleptic characteristics of the wild fish population groups from river Rima for additional knowledge to the interest of Fish Nutritionists