Anatomical aspects for seed quality assessment in sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax): hatchery and wild populations.

188 juveniles sampled in four Italian commercial hatcheries and 66 wild fry were examined to identify anomalies in vertebral axis, vertebrae, fins and swim bladder and the presence of calculi in urinary ducts. Anomaly data were submitted to X square test and multidimensional analysis techniques. Fry quality : 41 classes of anomalies were observed among the five populations. CA analysis was used to identify the presence of a functional swim bladder as the main descriptor to assess fry quality. PCA analysis showed interrelationships between the absence of functional swim bladder and some of the 41 classes of anomalies. The populations subjected to analysis were found to be characterized by different classes of anomalies. In detail, with respect to anomaly occurrences and fry origin, X2 test have identified 1 class of anomalies characterizing each population. Also Dynamic Cloud Analysis has confirmed the presence of five predictive classes for the five populations, with different rates of belonging for each considered population. Only wild fry, characterized by the absence of swim bladder anomalies and by the lowest occurrence of skeletal anomalies, resulted to belong totally (100 % of individuals) to a sole predictive class. Consequently, the proportion of belonging of hatchery fry to a "wild-type" predictive class could be considered as a useful criteria to define seed quality.