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Nitric oxide euthanasia: a potential procedure for improving animal welfare and fillet color of tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

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Abstract

Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) were euthanized with saturated nitric oxide (NO) solution prior to slaughter. The behavior, heart rate, plasma cortisol, and color values were used to evaluate the welfare and fillet color of the fish. Tilapia were unconscious after 20 min of NO euthanasia which was much shorter than with carbon monoxide (CO) treatment. Tilapia remained quiet during the euthanasia process. The heart rate reduced from 41 to 7 beats/min after 20 min of NO euthanasia, and the cortisol level in the NO-euthanized fish plasma was significantly lower than that of the percussively stunned fish sample. Moreover, both the red and white muscles of NO-euthanized tilapia fillets had a brighter red color than those of control, and showed a significant increase in redness (a* values) postmortem at 0 °C for 15 days. The results suggested that NO euthanasia prior to slaughter is a good procedure to improve both the animal welfare and tilapia fillet color. In summary, NO treatment resulted in shorter euthanasia time, less stress, enhanced a* values, and stabilization of tilapia fillet red color. This procedure is valuable for aquaculture of tilapia and possibly other fish species.

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Abbreviations

L* :

Lightness

a* :

Redness

b* :

Yellowness

CO:

Carbon monoxide

O2 :

Oxygen

NO:

Nitric oxide

Hb:

Hemoglobin

Mb:

Myoglobin

MbO2 :

Oxymyoglobin

HbO2 :

Oxylhemoglobin

Deoxy-Hb:

Deoxyhemoglobin

Deoxy-Mb:

Deoxymyoglobin

HbNO:

Nitrosylhemoglobin

MbNO:

Nitrosylmyoglobin

MbCO:

Carboxymyoglobin

Met-Hb:

Ferric hemoglobin

Met-Mb:

Ferric myoglobin

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the “National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31660448),” the “Guangxi Natural Science Foundation (Nos. 2016GXNSFAA380290 and 2016GXNSFEA380003),” and the “BaGui Scholars Program of Food Biotechnology.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Science, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, Guangxi, People’s Republic of China

    Zi-Chao Wang, Mou-Ming Zhao & De-Wei Chen

  2. Faculty of Life and Geographical Science, Qinghai Normal University, Xining, 810000, Qinghai, People’s Republic of China

    Zi-Chao Wang

  3. Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Zhongxiang Fang

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  1. Zi-Chao Wang
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  2. Mou-Ming Zhao
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  4. De-Wei Chen
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Correspondence to De-Wei Chen.

Ethics declarations

The treatments of tilapia in this study were carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for animal experiments, and ethical permit was approved by the Ethics Committee of Guangxi University.

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Wang, ZC., Zhao, MM., Fang, Z. et al. Nitric oxide euthanasia: a potential procedure for improving animal welfare and fillet color of tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Aquacult Int 25, 1845–1856 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10499-017-0162-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10499-017-0162-x

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