Defining breeding objectives and estimation economic values of traits for Persian sturgeon (Acipenser persicus)

The Persian sturgeon (Acipenser persicus) is one of the native species of the Caspian Sea sturgeon, which holds high economic value as a source of caviar and meat. This study aimed to establish a consensus on economic traits and achieve desired genetic gains in this fish using an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and weighted goal programming (WGP). To determine preference values for important economic traits through multiple pairwise comparisons, a survey was conducted among 45 Persian sturgeon farmers in Iran. The AHP was utilized to evaluate individual preference values using Super Decisions software. The average values of individual preferences indicated that farmers prioritize the body weight of broodstock, total caviar weight and ovarian fat lobe weight traits over others. Group preference values were determined using the WGP model in LINGO software. The results revealed that the two categories of commercial products and water temperature exhibited the most discrepancies among the groups. Extended WGP was employed to establish Consensus preference values for these categories in LINGO software. The mean of the Consensus preference values multiplied by the percentage of genetic improvement were used to calculate the desired genetic gains. The findings indicated that farmers prioritize genetic gains of total caviar weight over other traits. Our results constitute the first report on determining the importance of economic traits and multi-traits selection in the Persian sturgeon breeding program using participatory approaches.