Fish welfare and quality assessment by conventional and innovative methods.

The overall aim of my research was on one side, to investigate the possibility of using rapid and nondestructive methods for the determination of fish fillets quality and their classification, on the other side, to find out the stunning/slaughtering method able to guarantee a minimal or to completely avoid stress condition at the moment immediately prior of the slaughtering process, by assessing the effects on fillets quality by conventional and innovative methods, from two different farmed species [Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) and rainbow trout (Onchorynchus mykiss)]. Percussion, asphyxia in the air, electroshock and asphyxia by carbon monoxide (CO) were tested; behaviour (on Atlantic salmon), stress indicators, shelf-life evolution during cold storage (raw fillets) and sensory analysis (cooked fillets) have been investigated, depending on stunning/slaughtering method and, in the case of rainbow trout, also on water rearing temperature.