THE FAT CONTENT OF THE SKIN-ON FILLET OF COMMON CARP (Cyprinus carpio L.) IN THE WALDVIERTEL REGION (AUSTRIA)

In Austria, traditional carp pond farming uses natural food (zooplankton and benthic organisms) and supplemental feed for the production of common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.). The natural food provides the fish essential fatty acids and proteins (Dabrowski & Rusiecki 1983; Tocher 2003; Steffens 2011) and supplemental feed is given to accelerate growth. Most commonly used supplemental feed in Austria are grains or members of the legume family.   They provide the carp carbohydrates, which increase the fat content in the meat (Kainz 1984, Pfeifer and Füllner 2008, Ljubojević et al. 2017). Unfortunately, the traditional carp pond farming faces the prejudice that common carp is a fatty fish (Ljubojević et al. 2017, Klinkhardt 2017).  To terminate with this prejudice the first measurements of Austrian carp fat content have been conducted in 2006 by the Federal Agency for Water Management, Ecological Station Waldviertel, which also offers interested fish farmers the service of measuring the fat content of carp.