Chapters authored
Domestication of the Eurasian Perch (Perca fluviatilis)
The farming of percids (Eurasian perch Perca fluviatilis, pikeperch Sander lucioperca) has progressively become a diversification path of European inland aquaculture in the past 25 years. This required the domestication of wild or pseudowild (coming from polyculture ponds) populations. Considering the history of Eurasian perch, this domestication can be subdivided into four main successive parts: (1) a short initial prospective period (bibliographical analysis, market analysis, etc.), (2) a first experimental period to acquire basic data that notably resulted in the choice of the rearing system and commercial feeds, (3) a second experimental period allowing to get an in-depth knowledge on each of the main phase of the life cycle of this species (control of the life cycle in rearing conditions), and (4) a third experimental period, still ongoing, of optimization of rearing practices. This chapter allows understanding the domestication framework of this species and better understanding the role of different actors in the decision-making. In the future, the farming of this species is likely to rely on a larger diversity of rearing systems; a key issue is to study the interactions between species-rearing system. How different domestication trajectories or paths (intratrajectories variability) will affect global performances of Eurasian perch remains an open question.
Part of the book: Animal Domestication