Abstract
Customers of finfish in China place a high priority on healthy fish at the point of sale but factors that increase the risk of morbidity and mortality during transportation have had limited study. We designed a case study to investigate variation of mortalities claimed by customers receiving fish at markets with above-normal mortalities. We used daily transaction records of the 3 species transported from a company located in Guangdong province to its destination markets in Beijing between April and July 2013: largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), Chinese perch (Siniperca chuatsi), and longsnout catfish (Leiocassis longirostris). We quantified magnitudes and patterns of weekly mortalities of transported fish, and used cross-classified random-effect modeling to explore variation and clustering of fish mortality claims at wholesale destinations. Random effects for customer and market-week were interpreted by variance partition coefficients (VPC) and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). A significant fixed effect of market was found in the model of mortality claims for longsnout catfish (p < 0.05), and changing patterns of VPC and ICC suggested that customers ordering longsnout catfish had more variation in claims than those ordering the other 2 species. Our findings indicate a need for better customer communication for live fish transportation and a need for detailed measurements during the process including physiological factors and transportation conditions, to better understand their role in reported mortalities.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 150-155 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Aquaculture Reports |
Volume | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 1 2016 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- China
- Cross-classified model
- Customers
- Fish mortality claims
- Live fish transportation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Aquatic Science
- Animal Science and Zoology