Near-Infrared Spectroscopy as a Novel Non-Invasive Tool to Assess Spiny Lobster Nutritional Condition

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 11; no. 7; p. e0159671
• Main Authors: Simon, Cedric J, Rodemann, Thomas, Carter, Chris G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 21-07-2016; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Abdomen - physiology; Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Animals; Aquaculture; Biology and Life Sciences; Body Weight; Calibration; Carbon - analysis; Carbon content; Condition monitoring; Crustacea; Crustaceans; Dry matter; Feasibility studies; Fish; Fisheries; Food and nutrition; Hemolymph; Hemolymph - metabolism; Hepatopancreas; Hepatopancreas - physiology; I.R. radiation; Infrared spectra; Infrared spectroscopy; Jasus edwardsii; Lobsters; Meat quality; Medicine and Health Sciences; Muscles; Muscles - physiology; Near infrared radiation; Near infrared spectroscopy; Nitrogen - analysis; Nitrogen content; Palinuridae; Palinuridae - physiology; Panulirus ornatus; Pontophilus spinosus; Portable equipment; Reproducibility of Results; Research and Analysis Methods; Spectroscopy; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared - methods; Spectrum analysis; Spiny lobsters; Statistics, Nonparametric; Australia
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159671

Rapid non-invasive monitoring of spiny lobster nutritional condition has considerable application in the established fishery, live market and prospective aquaculture. The aim of this research was to test the feasibility of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) as a novel non-invasive tool to assess the nutritional condition of three lobster species. Lobster (n = 92) abdominal muscle dry matter (AMDM) and carbon content (AMC) correlated significantly with indices of nutritional condition including hepatopancreas dry matter (HPDM; rho = 0.83, 0.78), total lipid content (HPTL; rho = 0.85, 0.87) and haemolymph total protein (TP; rho = 0.89, 0.87 respectively). Abdominal muscle nitrogen content (AMN) was a poor correlate of nutritional condition. Models based on FT-NIR scanning of whole lobster tails successfully predicted AMDM, AMN and AMC (RMSECV = 1.41%, 0.35% and 0.91%; R2 = 0.75, 0.65, 0.77, respectively), and to a lower accuracy HPDM, HPTL and TP (RMSECV = 6.22%, 8.37%, 18.4 g l-1; R2 = 0.51, 0.70, 0.83, respectively). NIRS was applied successfully to assess the condition of spiny lobsters non-invasively. This pilot study paves the way for the development of crustacean condition models using portable non-invasive devices in the laboratory or in the field.