AQUACULTURE RESEARCH, vol.51, no.5, pp.1844-1853, 2020 (SCI-Expanded)
This study evaluated the nutritional quality of farmed and wild axillary seabream (Pagellus acarne R., 1827) focusing on amino acid profiles, with regards to possible interactions with wild fish aggregating around the cage facility. Total amino acids ( n-ary sumation AA), essential amino acids ( n-ary sumation EAA), non-essential amino acids ( n-ary sumation NEAA) and neutral amino acids ( n-ary sumation NAA) in farmed fish were lower than those in the wild individuals (p > .05). Amino acid pattern in cage-aggregated fish showed a slight decline from the wild populations, but still higher than the farmed fish. Based on the amino acid scores (AAS), lysine and leucine could be underlined as the 'first limiting amino acids', but all other AASs were over '1', in accordance with reference amino acid contents of FAO/WHO (>1.00), showing that farmed axillary seabream provides high nutritional quality and can be considered as a favourable protein source. The ratios of n-ary sumation EAA/ n-ary sumation AA (44%-46%) and n-ary sumation EAA/ n-ary sumation NEAA (79%-86%) exceeded the minimum recommendation of 40% and >60% by FAO/WHO for all three groups. It can be concluded that axillary seabream either farmed, farm-aggregated or distant wild fish presented high-quality protein generating a healthy source for human food.