Acquacoltura di specie emergenti: Genotipizzazione e pedigree in Anguilla anguilla, primi risultati.

Abstract - Anguilla anguilla (Linnaeus, 1758) is a critically endangered species, whose existence in the wild is highly threatened by human activities and is included in the IUCN Red List of threatened species as “Critically Endangered”. Restocking and captive breeding programs designed to preserve the residual genetic variability should represent the future for conservation of this species. In this perspective, the present study aims to increase the knowledge about the mechanisms at the basis of reproduction of the European eel in semi-natural conditions, through paternity assignment. Here we show the very first parental assignment results of a plenty successful reproductive event that occurred in 2016: four families of European eel founded by four female plus 11 males in different mixes and their progeny, for a total of 206 samples. Parental allocations revealed the presence of different percentage of success of males in fertilizing eggs, with two “super-males” at the top of the productivity, with the 19.9% and 18.8% of total larvae (males 128 and 129) and two “weak-males” at the end of the distribution of productivity curve (males 134 and 135). Since the artificial reproduction of European eel is a very challenging topic for world aquaculture, these first results may help in drawing future breeding plans aimed both to increase the productivity for human consumption and to develop restocking plans in order to try to reduce the speed of decreasing in worldwide stocks of European eels.