• Animal Bioscience
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• 제34권5호
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• pp.914-921
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• 2021

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare growth performance, carcass traits and meat quality in young bulls, steers and heifers produced by crossing Limousin bulls with Holstein-Friesian cows, fattened semi-intensively and slaughtered at 18 months of age. Methods: Thirty-one young calves were reared in a conventional production system, and were fed milk replacer, hay and concentrate. At 6 months of age, the animals were divided into groups based on gender, and were fed a total mixed ration composed of grass silage, concentrates I and II in a semi-intensive production system. At the end of the fattening period (18 months), the animals were slaughtered, carcass quality was evaluated, and samples of musculus longissimus thoracis were collected to determine the proximate composition and quality of meat. Results: Bulls were characterized by the highest percentage share of the most valuable cuts in the carcass, and three-rib sections from bull carcasses had the highest lean meat content with low intramuscular fat content (0.93%). No significant differences in carcass conformation, dressing percentage or the percentage share of round in the right half-carcass were found between bulls vs. steers and heifers. Heifers and steers had higher carcass fat content than bulls, which had a positive influence on the sensory properties of beef. In comparison with the meat of bulls, the meat of steers and heifers was characterized by more desirable physical properties and sensory attributes (water-holding capacity, shear force, color lightness, aroma, juiciness, tenderness, flavor). Conclusion: Under the semi-intensive production system, heifers and steers had higher carcass fat content than bulls, which had a positive effect on the sensory properties of beef. Bulls are better suited for intensive systems, which contribute to improving the quality of their meat. The results of this study may encourage producers to breed steers and heifers for beef.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제33권8호
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• pp.1224-1232
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• 2020

Objective: The QingYu pig is well known for its excellent meat quality attributes in Sichuan province, China. In order to improve its production efficiency, the determination of genetic factors contributing to quantifiable economic traits of livestock is important. Moreover, the cross-breeding of QingYu pigs with western breeds possessing strong growth attributes is an efficient way to improve the performance of this breed. Methods: Here, the genetic parameters of several important reproductive traits of QingYu pigs were estimated, include total number born (TNB), number born alive, litter birth weight, individual birth weight, number of piglets weaned, litter weaning weight, and individual weaning weight. The data was analyzed using the ASReml 3.0 software (NSW Inc., Sydney, Australia). Furthermore, the effects of crossing Berkshire with QingYu (BQ) pigs on carcass and meat quality traits, as well as the effects of slaughter weight on carcass and meat quality of BQ were characterized. Results: QingYu pigs exhibited superior reproductive traits. The TNB available to QingYu pigs was more than 8 per parity. The observed repeatability of the reproductive traits of the QingYu pigs was between 0.10 and 0.23. The significantly correlated genetic and phenotypic of reproduction traits were consistent. Interestingly, the BQ pigs exhibited improved carcass quality, with a significant increase in loin muscle area, lean percentage and reduction in sebum percentage. As a result, BQ had higher L_45min, lower cooking scores, and lower drip loss. In addition, the loin muscle area, body length, and sebum percentage were significantly higher in 90 and 100 kg animals. Cooking loss showed a significant increase at 80 kg, and marbling increased significantly from 90 kg. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that QingYu pigs exhibit excellent reproductive properties and heritability of these traits. Crossing with Berkshire is an efficient strategy to improve the carcass and meat quality of QingYu pigs for commercial operations. Furthermore, it appears as though the optimal slaughter weight of BQ pigs is at approximately 90 kg.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제14권4호
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• pp.447-454
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• 2001

For determining the relative genetic effects of Duroc (D) and Taoyuan (T) breeds on the economic traits of their hybrids, 72 litters of pigs, from four mating types, namely TT (T♂$\times$T♀), DD (D♂$\times$D♀) and D-T hybrids (TD, T♂$\times$D♀ and DT, D♂$\times$T♀) were used in this study. The various crossbreeding parameters were estimated by comparisons among mating types using linear contrasts of least-square analysis. The results of reproductive traits analysis showed that T breed had contributed superior genetic effects on the total number of piglets at birth (TBN) (p<0.10) and number of live piglets at 21 days (LP21) (p<0.05) to the D-T hybrids. Estimates of maternal genetic effects showed that the T females were superior in TBN (p<0.05), but inferior in average birth weight (ABW) and average litter birth weight (LBW) (p<0.01) to the D females. Direct heterosis effects were significant for LBW, LP21 and LWT21 (p<0.01). Least-squares analysis of other economic traits showed that T breed had relative negative effects on all growth traits, withers height (WH), body type index (BTI), average backfat thickness (ABF), carcass length (LENG), loin eye area (longissimus) (LEARA), and lean percentage (LEAN) of D-T hybrids (p<0.05). Estimates of direct genetic effects showed that the D breed was superior to the T breed in all growth and carcass traits except the average backfat (BF). Estimates of maternal genetic effects showed that average body weight at 180 days (WT180) of progenies from T sows were lighter than from D sows. Progenies from D females had larger and leaner carcass than those from T females. Direct heterosis effects were significant for average daily weight gains from 150 to 180 days ($ADG_{150-180}$) (p<0.05) and for average body weights at 150 (WT150), and 180 days (WT180), average daily weight gains from birth to 150 and 180 days ($ADG_{150}$ and $ADG_{180}$, respectively), WH, body length (BL), ABF, BTI, and LENG (p<0.01). The results showed that D-T hybrids tended to have superior TBN and LP21 than D breed, and to be superior in all growth and most conformation and carcass traits to the T breed.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제24권10호
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• pp.1464-1472
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• 2011

Effects of a supplemental fermented agro by-products diet on growth performance, blood characteristics and carcass traits were investigated in fattening pigs. The fermented diet mainly contained 38.0% brewer's grain, 25.0% rice bran and 21.0% byproduct of king oyster mushrooms. The mixed ingredients were fermented at $40^{\circ}C$ for 7 days and fed to crossbred barrow pigs for 62 days. Ninety pigs were housed in 10 head per pen with three replicate pens per treatment. The pigs in the control group were fed with formula feed, while the pigs in T1 group were fed 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100% fermented diet substituted with formula feed on 1 week interval. Pigs in T2 group were fed 30, 60 and 100% fermented diet substituted with formula feed on 1 week interval. The fermented diet significantly (p<0.05) decreased body weight gain and feed efficiency of pigs. The blood characteristics differed with diet types. Carcass grade was significantly better (p<0.05) in the pigs fed fermented diet than in the pigs fed control diet as well as ratio of high grade was higher in the fermented diet groups. Therefore, although a dietary of fermented diet decreased growth performance and feed efficiency, it improved the carcass grade in pigs.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제12권6호
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• pp.843-845
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• 1999

To evaluate direct and maternal effects on calf market weight (CMW) and carcass weight (CW) in Japanese Black cattle under an animal model, genetic parameters were estimated using 51,320 records of CMW and 11,944 records of CW, respectively. Direct and maternal heritabilities, and direct-maternal genetic correlation were estimated to be 0.22, 0.06 and 0.27 for CMW, and 0.23, 0.12 and -0.40 for CW, respectively. Correlation coefficient between maternal breeding values for CMW and CW was 0.521 for 157 sires appeared in both CMW and CW data sets. These results suggest that the maternal genetic effect on pre-weaning growth carries over to carcass weight. Maternal breeding values for both calf market weight and carcass weight could be used as the indicator traits of maternal ability in Japanese Black cattle.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제15권10호
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• pp.1391-1394
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• 2002

The polymorphism of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) in 13 pig breeds (total n=559) was detected by PCR-Hha I- RFLP, and allele A (151 bp and 28 bp) or allele B (116 bp, 35 bp and 28 bp) were observed. In these pig breeds, it was found that European pig breeds carried high frequencies of allele B, while Chinese native pig breeds carried high frequencies of allele A. Meanwhile the role of porcine IGF-I was investigated in 117 Nanchang White pigs and 360 Large Yorkshire pigs. Eight traits about growth and carcass were recorded for analyzing the associations between IGF-I gene polymorphism and performance quantitative traits. In the Nanchang White pigs, those with AA genotype generally had higher birth weight than those with AB genotype (p<0.05), but all these genotypes had no significant effect on the other traits which had been analyzed. In Large Yorkshire pigs, those with BB genotype had higher 2 months and 6 months body weight than those with AA genotype (p<0.05), and had a thicker hind-back-fat thickness and mid-back-thickness than those with AB and BB genotypes (p<0.05). And those with BB genotype were the thinnest in Large Yorkshire. Furthermore, pigs with AA genotype had a lower lean percentage than those with AB and BB genotypes (p<0.01), and the lean percentage of those with BB genotype was the highest. Based on these results, it is possible to make the IGF-I gene locus into the application of marker-assisted selection programmes.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제28권10호
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• pp.1471-1478
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• 2015

The present study aimed to assess the effect of dietary substitution of soybean meal (SBM) with dehulled-micronized faba bean (Vicia faba var. minor) in guinea fowl broilers on their growth traits, carcass quality, and meat fatty acids composition. In this trial, 120 day-old guinea fowl keets were randomly assigned to two treatments which were fed from hatch to 12 weeks of age. Birds were fed two wheat middlings-based diets comprising of a control treatment which contained SBM (78.3 g/kg) and a test diet containing dehulled-micronized faba bean (130 g/kg) as the main protein source. Substituting SBM with faba bean had no adverse effect on growth traits, dressing percentage, or breast and thigh muscles relative weight of the guinea fowls. Conversely, a decrease (p<0.05) of abdominal fat was found in guinea fowls fed the faba bean-diet. Breast muscle of birds fed faba bean had higher $L^*$ score (p<0.05) and water-holding capacity (p<0.05) than the SBM control diet. Meat from guinea fowls fed faba bean had less total lipids (p<0.05) and cholesterol (p<0.01), and higher concentrations of phospholipids (p<0.01). Feeding faba bean increased polyunsaturated fatty acid concentrations in breast meat and decreased the saturated fatty acid levels. Moreover, dietary faba bean improved the atherogenic and thrombogenic indexes in guinea fowl breast meat. Results indicated that substitution of SBM with faba bean meal in guinea fowl diet can improve carcass qualitative traits, enhancing also meat lipid profile without negatively affecting growth performance.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제16권10호
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• pp.1501-1509
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• 2003

The simultaneous addition of xylanase (5,600 EXU/kg) and phytase (500 FTU/kg) feed enzymes to wheat-based broiler diets was investigated. Starter, grower and finisher diets, with three tiers of nutrient specifications, were fed to 1,440 broiler chicks kept on deep litter from 1-42 days post-hatch, without and with xylanase plus phytase, to determine the effects of diet type and enzyme supplementation on growth performance. The nutrient specifications of type A diets were standard; energy density and protein/amino acid levels were reduced on a least-cost basis to formulate type B diets and further reduced to type C diets. Phosphorus (P) and calcium (Ca) levels were adjusted in supplemented diets. From 1-42 days post-hatch, diet type significantly influenced growth performance. Birds on type C diets had lower growth rates (2,429 vs. 2,631 g/bird; p<0.001), higher feed intakes (4,753 vs. 4,534 g/bird; p<0.005) and less efficient feed conversion (1.96 vs. 1.72; p<0.001) than birds offered type A diets. Enzyme supplementation increased growth rates by 3.2% (2,580 vs. 2,501 g/bird; p<0.005) and improved feed efficiency by 2.7% (1.80 vs. 1.85; p<0.05) over the entire feeding period. There were no interactions between diet type and enzyme supplementation. At 21 days, 5 out of 30 birds per pen were transferred to cages to ascertain treatment effect on apparent metabolisable energy (AME) and nitrogen (N) retention. Xylanase plus phytase enhanced AME (13.48 to 13.91 MJ/kg DM; p<0.001) and N retention (56.3 to 59.7%; p<0.005). Carcass and breast weights of the caged birds were determined following commercial processing. Diet type significantly influenced breast weight, carcass weight and yield. Birds offered Type A diets, in comparison to Type C diets, supported heavier breast (467 vs. 424 g; p<0.001) and carcass weights (1,868 vs. 1,699 g; p<0.001) with superior carcass yields (71.8 vs. 70.6%; p<0.005). Enzyme addition increased carcass weight by 3.9% (1,752 vs. 1,821 g; p<0.005) and breast weight by 5.8% (431 vs. 456 g; p<0.01) without influencing yields. Feed ingredient costs per kg live weight gain and per kg carcass weight indicated that enzyme addition was economically feasible, where supplementation of Type A diets generated the most effective results. Importantly, soluble and total non-starch polysaccharide and phytate contents of the wheat used were typical by local standards. This study confirms the potential of supplementing wheat-based broiler diets with xylanase plus phytase but further investigations are required to define the most appropriate inclusion rates and dietary nutrient specifications in this context.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제21권2호
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• pp.245-251
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• 2008

The effects of feeding diets containing 20% (L) or 30% (H) neutral detergent fiber (NDF) (DM basis) on performance and carcass traits were studied in three breeds of pig, including pure Mong Cai (MC), crossbred Landrace$\times$Yorkshire (LY) and crossbred MC$\times$Yorkshire (F1). The experiment had a factorial design with two factors, breed and diet. Eighteen piglets of each breed ($60{\pm}3days$) were randomly allocated to three treatments: L-L, low fiber diet in both growing and finishing periods; L-H, low and high fiber diet in the growing and finishing period, respectively; and H-H, high fiber diet in both periods. The diets were iso-energetic and iso-nitrogenous within feeding period. The main fibrous ingredients of the diets were rice bran and cassava residue. There were no effects of fiber level on daily dry matter feed intake (DMI), expressed as g/kg metabolic body weight (BW0.75), in both feeding periods (p>0.05). DMI was highest for MC, followed by F1 and LY (p<0.001). Average daily gain (ADG) in L-L and L-H was higher than in H-H in the growing period (p<0.001) and overall (p<0.05), while feed conversion ratio (FCR) was higher in H-H than in L-L and L-H in the growing period (p<0.05) and overall, but no significant differences between treatments were found in the finishing period. In both periods, Landrace$\times$Yorkshire had the highest ADG and the lowest FCR, followed by F1 and Mong Cai (p<0.001). There were no interactions between breed and diet for performance and carcass traits. Carcass and dressing percentage was lower for L-H and H-H than for L-L (p<0.05). There were no significant differences among treatments in back fat thickness and lean meat percentage, or in crude protein and ether extract contents of lean meat. Carcass, dressing and lean meat percentage was highest for LY, lowest for MC and intermediate for F1 (p<0.001). It can be concluded that feeding a high fiber diet in the growing period reduced pig performance, but there was no effect in the finishing period. Pure Mong Cai pigs are not particularly suitable for meat purposes, although the F1 cross with Large White had reasonably good growth performance and carcass quality.

• 농업과학연구
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• 제37권2호
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• pp.231-238
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• 2010

There is no investigation has yet been conducted for ACOX1 and CSRP3 gene polymorphisms in Korean cattle (Hanwoo), and their associations with carcass and meat quality traits. In this study, SNPs in ACOX1 and CSRP3 genes were identified and their associations with carcass and meat quality traits were investigated in 227 Hanwoo animals. Two SNPs (g.224G> A and g.19491G>A) in ACOX1 gene and one SNP (g.14859C>T) in CSRP3 gene were identified in Hanwoo and sequence analysis indicated that these SNPs were located in the coding regions. The allele frequencies of ACOX1 g.224G>A and g.19491G>A SNPs were 0.57, 0.43, and 0.56 and 0.44, respectively, For CSRP3 g.14859C>T polymorphism, the C and T allele frequencies were 0.64 and 0.36, respectively. The Hanwoo cattle were used to detect PCR-RFLP patterns for estimating the allele frequencies. Single marker association analyses were performed between genotype of each SNP, and carcass and meat quality association traits to evaluate the relationships in Hanwoo. The g.224G>A SNP genotypes of ACOX1 gene, which was significantly associated with meat quantity grade at slaughter (P<0.03) and backfat thickness tended to be greater (P=0.06) in Hanwoo. The previously identified g.14859C>T SNP was used in this study and the obtained genotype and allele frequencies are almost similar with the previous results reported by Bhuiyan et al. (2007). However, no significant association was found between g.19491G>A SNP in the ACOX1 and g.14859C>T SNP genotypes of CSRP3 gene and considered carcass and meat quality traits. In conclusion, the information on the identified SNPs in CSRP3 and ACOX1 genes could be useful for further association study and haplotype analysis for the development of carcass and meat quality traits in Hanwoo.