Genetic parameters of meat quality, external morphology, and growth traits in Pacific white shrimp (Penaeus vannamei) from an Ecuadorian population

In shrimp production, product quality plays a crucial role and determines consumer acceptance. However, there are no studies on its genetic determination. The main purpose of this study was, for first time in Penaeus vannamei, to estimate the additive genetic variation of flesh quality traits in terms of composition and texture, and their genetic correlation with growth and morphological traits. To this end, 388 shrimps from the fourth generation of the PMG-BIOGEMAR© breeding program, belonging to 79 full-sib families, were reared under an extensive industrial culturing system (PRODUMAR, Durán, Ecuador). At the same day, they were harvested and measured for fresh weight. They were kept at −20 °C for later sampling for flesh quality traits, in terms of composition, by Near-Infrared spectroscopy (NIR), and texture by Texture analyzer technologies. Growth and morphological traits were manually measured with a vernier caliper. Low heritabilities were estimated for flesh composition traits (0.01 to 0.07), and low-medium for meat quality traits related to texture (0.01 to 0.37). Medium-high heritabilities were estimated for total length and weight (0.35 and 0.50, respectively), with a very high genetic correlation between both (0.99). Regarding morphological traits, heritabilities ranged from 0.05 to 0.52 for length-related traits, from 0.15 to 0.36 for height-related traits, and from 0.22 to 0.42 for width-related traits. Cephalothorax length showed the highest heritability among all analyzed traits (0.52), with high genetic correlations with growth, flesh composition, and texture traits. The high genetic correlations found between growth and morphometric traits, and both flesh composition and texture traits suggest indirect selection as a successful, undemanding, and cost-effective method to obtain high-quality shrimps under industrial conditions.