FATTY ACID COMPOSITION OF FARMED WHITE STURGEON Acipenser transmontanus OVARY AT DIFFERENT AGES AND OVARIAN FAT CONTENT

Mahmoudreza Ovissipour^*1, Barbara Rasco¹, Serge I. Doroshov², Joel P. Van Eenennaam² ¹School of Food Science, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 99164. ²Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis CA, 95616. m.ovissipour@wsu.edu

One of the most important issues in sturgeon aquaculture is biochemical composition of the fish and caviar. In addition, nutritional factors associate with human health should be considered. High level of polyunsaturated fatty acids plays an important role in promoting human cardiovascular health. These fatty acids also play an important role during sturgeon development.

Sturgeon ovarian tissue of differing fat content (low fat, medium fat, and high fat) from 7 year old (n=23), 8 year old (n=17) and 9 year old (n=20) white sturgeon were provided by Sterling Caviar, LLC. (Elverta, CA). Recent on-farm studies have categorized the sturgeon ovaries into three groups: high, medium and low fat. The low fat ovaries produce over 65% caviar, based on the total ovary weight. High fat ovaries produce less than 50% caviar, and the medium fat ovaries fall in between. Ovarian fat content was extracted by a modified Bligh and Dyer. Fatty acid composition determined using GC-FID.