We consider the second variational derivative of a given gauge-natural invariant Lagrangian taken with respect to (prolongations of) vertical parts of gauge-natural lifts of infinitesimal principal automorphisms. By requiring such a second variational derivative to vanish, {em via} the Second Noether Theorem we find that a covariant strongly conserved current is canonically associated with the deformed Lagrangian obtained by contracting Euler--Lagrange equations of the original Lagrangian with (prolongations of) vertical parts of gauge-natural lifts of infinitesimal principal automorphisms lying in the kernel of the generalized gauge-natural Jacobi morphism.
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