• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.475-480
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• 2010

The bovine fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4) plays an important role to uptake intracellular fatty acid. It has been previously reported as a positional candidate gene for marbling score in livestock. The re-sequencing of FABP4 gene detected a polymorphic AT repeated sequence in intron II of FABP4 gene. Allelic distribution for this microsatellite marker was examined in other cattle breeds. A total of 8 alleles were detected with diverse repeat units (14 to 21 AT repeat) in Hanwoo and 7 breeds. Of the 8 alleles, the predominant alleles were $[AT]_{16}$, $[AT]_{18}$ and $[AT]_{19}$ in the Hanwoo and 7 cattle breeds. The linear mixed model for genotypic effect (3237AT) on carcass traits showed a significant effect on marbling score (MAR P=0.025) and live weight (LWT; P=0.04) in the 583 Hanwoo cattle population. Live weight (LW) was highest in the homozygous $(AT)_{17}$ genotype ($557.5{\pm}6.94$) and lowest in the heterozygous $(AT)_{16/17}$ genotype ($521.7{\pm}7.70$). On the other hand, the homozygous $(AT)_{17}$ genotype ($3.0{\pm}0.15$) has the highest effect on marbling score and the lowest effect was in homozygous (AT)$_{18}$ genotype ($2.2{\pm}0.15$). The marbling score difference between both groups was 0.8 which is around two times higher than SNP genotype effect on marbling score in Limousin $\times$ Wagyu crosses.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.157-164
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• 2010

We investigated the influence of carcass traits on carcass price for Hanwoo cow using multiple regression and path analyses. Data for carcass traits and price were collected on mature Hanwoo cow raised in private farms in Kangwon province that were slaughtered in 2008. A total of 96 animals with the average slaughter age of 51 months were used in the current study. Of the carcass traits studied, marbling score (MAR), dressing percentage (DP), and eye-muscle area (EMA) showed moderate and positive correlations with auction price (AP), while correlation coefficients of meat yield index (MINDEX) with AP were low or even negligible. In multiple regression analyses of AP and carcass price (CP) on cold carcass weight (CWT), back fat thickness (BFT), EMA, MAR, and DP, estimates of $R^2$ were 69.86 and 85.43%, respectively. Partial regression coefficients for CWT, BFT, EMA, MAR and DP were -0.028, -0.106, 0.107, 0.814, and 0.075 in the equation of AP and 0.561, -0.060, 0.083, 0.590, and 0.051 in the equation of CP. In path analyses, MAR's total contribution on the variation of AP was largest (0.667), and the total contributions of MAR and CWT on the variation of CP were 0.403 and 0.397. The current study suggested that marbling was the most influential trait on the variation of auction price, and marbling and cold carcass weight were critical traits on the variation of carcass price.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.66-73
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• 2018

Hanwoo is an important livestock resource in Korea. Its genetic improvements of economic traits have mainly focused on the steers in the past. However, there is a great necessity to extend the breed improvement programs to the cows as well. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the effects of various environmental factors (person taking the measurement, region, year of measurement, month of measurement, image interpreter, birth-year and birth-year) on ultrasound measured carcass traits. A total of 27,215 ultrasound measurements of carcass traits were recorded between 2004 and 2012 for 22,620 cows born from 1997 to 2011. The ultrasound measures included backfat thickness (BFT), eye muscle area (EMA), and marbling score (MAR). The mean values for the BFT, EMA and MAR were 4.46 mm, $56.24cm^2$, and 4.12 point, respectively. Seven environmental factors, person taking the measurement, region, year of measurement, month of measurement, image interpreter, birth-year and birth-month, were tested to determine if they had a significant effect on the studied traits using the GLM procedure in SAS. All factors were found to significantly affect all the ultrasound carcass traits in this study. Unlike in previous studies, among the environmental effects, the significant effect of the image interpreter on the ultrasound carcass traits was shown for the first time in this study. These results indicate that future genetic evaluations of ultrasound carcass traits of Hanwoo cows should include all of the above environmental factors as well as the effect from people taking the measurements.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.239-253
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• 2005

Serum concentrations of Hanwoo steers and bulls as possible indicators of beef quality were analyzed to estimate their correlations with carcass traits. Blood samples were taken 2 months and right before shipping to abattoir and at the time of slaughter. And phenotypic correlation coefficients between serum concentrations and carcass traits were estimated. Beef yield index of steers was positively correlated with serum concentrations of total Protein (0.23), albumin (0.26), and calcium (0.31). But it was negatively co..elated with BUN (-0.30). Loin eye area was positively correlated with BUN (0.17) or with globulin (0.16). Back fat thickness was positively correlated with BUN (0.42) and inorganic phosphorus (0.20) being negatively correlated with total protein (-0.23), albumin (-0.33) and calcium (-0.33). Marbling score in the scale of 1 (scarcely marbled) through 9 (extremely marbled) was positively correlated with BUN (0.28) and negatively with IGF-I and calcium concentrations. Phenotype correlation coefficient of loin eye area with total protein concentration in the serum taken from steers right before shipment was estimated to be -0.16 and that with BUN was estimated to be -0.15. Serum concentrations of IGF, glucose, creatinine and on organic phosphorus from steers measured right before shipment were negatively correlated with respective correlation coefficient estimates as -0.21, -0.21, -0.19 and -0.18. Marbling score was negatively co..elated with serum creatinine (-0.16) measured at that time. Beef yield index of steers was positively correlated (0.31) with age adjusted calcium concentration in the serum taken at the time of slaughter. Correlation between body weight and BUN at slaughter was 0.17 At slaughter, loin eye area was negatively correlated with albumin (-0.19) and back fat thickness was also negatively correlated with age adjusted calcium concentration (-0.38). Marbling was negatively correlated with age adjusted calcium concentration(-0.17). Serum concentrations of testosterone, calcium and inorganic phosphorus taken in 2 months before slaughter were negatively but highly correlated with yield index(0.71, 0.67 and -0.71), respectively. Body weight at slaughter was positively was negatively correlated (0.67) with calcium level while dressing percentage was negatively (-0.69) correlated with serum glucose concentration, 2 months prior to slaughter. Correlation coefficients between back fat thickness and cortisol, between back fat thickness and inorganic phosphate were both positive (0.29 and 0.69). Marbling score was negatively correlated with creatinine (-0.81) and positively with BUN (0.87). Body weight loss during shipping was positively correlated with albumin and inorganic phosphate (0.77, 0.83). Yield index of bulls was positively correlated with serum testosterone concentration (0.66). Dressing percentage was positively and highly correlated with globulin (0.73). Back fat thickness of bulls, however, was negatively correlated with testosterone (-0.60). Loin eye area of bull carcasses was positively correlated with testosterone (0.40). Mar-blaine was negatively co..elated with creatinine (-0.55). Yield index of bulls and age adjusted HDLC concentration at slaughter was negatively correlated (-0.71). Dressing percentage of bulls was positively and highly correlated with globulin concentration (0.70). Back fat thickness was also positively correlated with HDLC (0.69) in the serum taken at slaughter. Correlation coefficients between carcass weight and triglyceride, between loin eye are and testosterone and between marbling score and creatinine or glucose were 0.51, -0.91 and -0.58, respectively.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.405-416
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• 2013

This aim of this study was to estimate the most reasonable slaughter month for Hanwoo steers according to carcass traits. Carcass trait data on Hanwoo steers (17,249 head) were collected from October 2008 to September 2011. To measure the regression coefficients, Hanwoo steers were divided into two groups according to slaughter age: early (25 to 31 months) and late (32 to 38 months) groups. Regression coefficients of carcass traits according to slaughter age were significantly different (p<0.001) with the exception of PPKG (estimated auction price per 1 kg of carcass weight) in the early slaughter age group and MAR (marbling score, p<0.05) and PPKG (p<0.05) in the late slaughter age group. To obtain a positive gross margin, Hanwoo should be slaughtered at around 28 months of age.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.1215-1221
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• 2016

The prediction of carcass composition in Hanwoo steers is very important for value-based marketing, and the improvement of prediction accuracy and precision can be achieved through the analyses of independent variables using a prediction equation with a sufficient dataset. The present study was conducted to develop a prediction equation for Hanwoo carcass composition for which data was collected from 7,907 Hanwoo steers raised at a private farm in Gangwon Province, South Korea, and slaughtered in the period between January 2009 and September 2014. Carcass traits such as carcass weight (CWT), back fat thickness (BFT), eye-muscle area (EMA), and marbling score (MAR) were used as independent variables for the development of a prediction equation for carcass composition, such as retail cut weight and percentage (RC, and %RC, respectively), trimmed fat weight and percentage (FAT, and %FAT, respectively), and separated bone weight and percentage (BONE, and %BONE), and its feasibility for practical use was evaluated using the estimated retail yield percentage (ELP) currently used in Korea. The equations were functions of all the variables, and the significance was estimated via stepwise regression analyses. Further, the model equations were verified by means of the residual standard deviation and the coefficient of determination ($R^2$) between the predicted and observed values. As the results of stepwise analyses, CWT was the most important single variable in the equation for RC and FAT, and BFT was the most important variable for the equation of %RC and %FAT. The precision and accuracy of three variable equation consisting CWT, BFT, and EMA were very similar to those of four variable equation that included all for independent variables (CWT, BFT, EMA, and MAR) in RC and FAT, while the three variable equations provided a more accurate prediction for %RC. Consequently, the three-variable equation might be more appropriate for practical use than the four-variable equation based on its easy and cost-effective measurement. However, a relatively high average difference for the ELP in absolute value implies a revision of the official equation may be required, although the current official equation for predicting RC with three variables is still valid.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.325-332
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• 2011

This research was conducted to analyze the effects of raising farm on the heritability and breeding values of Hanwoo cows for their carcass traits, including cold carcass weight (CWT), back-fat thickness (BFT), eye-muscle area (EMA) and marbling score (MAR). The carcass data and pedigree data were collected from steers raised on Hanwoo farms in Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon-do, South Korea. Three analytical models were applied for the estimation of heritabilities and breeding values. The first model (model 1) included slaughter house-year-month combination as fixed effects and age at slaughter was fitted as linear and quadratic covariates. The second model (model 2) was similar to model 1, but raising farm was additionally included as random effect. The third model (model 3) was similar to model 1 but farm effects were additionally included as fixed effect. The comparisons between the model 1 and the models including farm effect (model 2 and model 3) revealed that heritability estimates from model 2 or model 3 were smaller to those from model 1 for all carcass traits. Especially, obvious decrease of heritability was observed in CWT where heritability was 0.23 from model 1, 0.15 from model 2 and 0.18 from model 3. The maximum log likelihood of the model 2 and 3 were higher than those of model 1 for all traits. In model 2 that raising farm was included as a random effect, the ratio of farm variance to the total phenotypic variance were ranged from 4% (EMA) to 18% (CWT). Top 10% and bottom 10% of female cows were selected based on the breeding values from model 1, and the Spearman's rank correlation coefficients among models were estimated for each trait within selected group. The correlation coefficients were ranged from 0.57 to 0.95 in top 10% group and from 0.68 to 0.95 in bottom 10% group. These results show that the discrepancies in the rankings of breeding values can be based on the models applied. In conclusion, the results obtained in this study suggest that the herd effect or farm effect should be included in the analytical model when breeding values are estimated with the purpose of improvement of carcass traits of Hanwoo breeding cows.