ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (CIFA) initiated selective breeding of catla in 2012 after successful genetic selection of rohu, popularly known as 'Jayanti'. On the similar lines, base population of catla was developed from nine stocks collected from different sources and places of India viz. West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The fingerlings (~50gm) were tagged and stocked in communal ponds in triplicates for one year culture.
In the course of breeding season, full sib families were produced by dry stripping. During stripping of eggs from females, it was observed that egg roe from females of different sources were having five variable shades of colours viz. Dark golden, Golden yellow, grey, dull yellow, green and golden. Though they were reared with same feed and same environment,the colour was also observed to be inherited from mother to daughter i.e. from base population to first generation. The unfertilized egg roe was analysed for fatty acid composition using AOAC method of Flame Ionization Detector Gas Chromatography (GC-FID).
Variation of Monounsaturated Fatty Acids (MUFA) content was observed in different egg groups. Among them, dark golden colored eggs had highest content of MUFA (1.96gm/100gm) while it was lowest in greyish tinged eggs (0.63gm/100gm). The trans-fat content was non-significant in all groups (<0.1 gm/100gm). Polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) content was more in yellowish colour (0.27 gm/100gm) and greyish coloured (0.15 gm/100gm) eggs. Saturated fatty acid (SFA) content was more in dark golden coloured eggs while it was insignificant in yellow and greyish coloured(<0.1 gm/100gm) eggs. Further studies associated with colour pigmentation are needed for better validation.