Chromium content in the meat of male Saanen goat kids from Vojvodina (Northern Serbia)

Goats, the earliest ruminant to be domesticated, are traditional sources of meat, milk, fibre, leather, related products of animal origin and as draught and pack animals. Meat is the major product of the goat. Meat quality is the sum of all sensory, nutritive, technological and hygienic-toxicological factors of meat. The aims of this study were to investigate the chromium content of four different muscles (M. psoas major, M. longissimus dorsi, M. semimembranosus and M. triceps brachii) of Saanen goat male kids and to determine whether the chromium contents differed between the muscles. Chromium content was determined using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), after dry ashing mineralisation. The studied muscles did not significantly differ (P >0.05) with respect to chromium content. The chromium content ranged from 0.012 to 0.067 mg/100 g, with an average of 0.026 mg/100 g

Comparison of Muscle Transcriptome between Pigs with Divergent Meat Quality Phenotypes Identifies Genes Related to Muscle Metabolism and Structure

Background: Meat quality depends on physiological processes taking place in muscle tissue, which could involve a large pattern of genes associated with both muscle structural and metabolic features. Understanding the biological phenomena underlying muscle phenotype at slaughter is necessary to uncover meat quality development. Therefore, a muscle transcriptome analysis was undertaken to compare gene expression profiles between two highly contrasted pig breeds, Large White (LW) and Basque (B), reared in two different housing systems themselves influencing meat quality. LW is the most predominant breed used in pig industry, which exhibits standard meat quality attributes. B is an indigenous breed with low lean meat and high fat contents, high meat quality characteristics, and is genetically distant from other European pig breeds. Methodology/Principal Findings: Transcriptome analysis undertaken using a custom 15 K microarray, highlighted 1233 genes differentially expressed between breeds (multiple-test adjusted P-value,0.05), out of which 635 were highly expressed in the B and 598 highly expressed in the LW pigs. No difference in gene expression was found between housing systems. Besides, expression level of 12 differentially expressed genes quantified by real-time RT-PCR validated microarray data. Functional annotation clustering emphasized four main clusters associated to transcriptome breed differences: metabolic processes, skeletal muscle structure and organization, extracellular matrix, lysosome, and proteolysis, thereb

Identification of expression QTL (eQTL) of genes expressed in porcine M. longissimus dorsi and associated with meat quality traits

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Genetic analysis of transcriptional profiles is a promising approach for identifying and dissecting the genetics of complex traits like meat performance. Accordingly, expression levels obtained by microarray analysis were taken as phenotypes in a linkage analysis to map eQTL. Moreover, expression levels were correlated with traits related to meat quality and principle components with high loadings of these traits. By using an up-to-date annotation and localization of the respective probe-sets, the integration of eQTL mapping data and information of trait correlated expression finally served to point to candidate genes for meat quality traits.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Genome-wide transcriptional profiles of <it>M. longissimus dorsi </it>RNAs samples of 74 F2 animals of a pig resource population revealed 11,457 probe-sets representing genes expressed in the muscle. Linkage analysis of expression levels of these probe-sets provided 9,180 eQTL at the suggestive significance threshold of LOD > 2. We mapped 653 eQTL on the same chromosome as the corresponding gene and these were designated as 'putative <it>cis-</it>eQTL'. In order to link eQTL to the traits of interest, probe-sets were addressed with relative transcript abundances that showed correlation with meat quality traits at p ≤ 0.05. Out of the 653 'putative <it>cis-</it>eQTL', 262 transcripts were correlated with at least one meat quality trait. Furthermore, association of expression levels with composite traits with high loadings for meat quality traits generated by principle component analysis were taken into account leading to a list of 85 genes exhibiting <it>cis-</it>eQTL and trait dependent expression.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Holistic expression profiling was integrated with QTL analysis for meat quality traits. Correlations between transcript abundance and meat quality traits, combined with genetic positional information of eQTL allowed us to prioritise candidate genes for further study.</p

Effects of zilpaterol hydrochloride and zinc methionine on growth performance and carcass characteristics of beef bulls

Sixty beef bulls with a body weight (BW) of 314.79 16.2 kg were used to evaluate the effects of zilpaterol hydrochloride (ZH) and zinc methionine (ZM) on growth performance and carcass characteristics. The experimental design was a randomized complete block, with a factorial 22 arrangement of treatments (ZH: 0 and 0.15 mg kg 1 BW; ZM: 0 and 80 mg kg 1 dry matter). The ZH increased (PB0.05) the final BW, average daily gain, feed conversion, carcass yield and longissimus dorsi area. Bulls fed ZH plus ZM had less (PB0.01) backfat thickness and intramuscular fat (IMF) compared with those fed ZH or ZM alone. The ZH increased (PB0.02) the meat crude protein content and cooking loss. It is therefore concluded that ZH increases growth performance, carcass yield, longissimus dorsi area, and meat crude protein. The interaction of ZM and ZH did not present additional advantages. The reason for the reduction in backfat thickness and IMF by ZH plus ZM is unclear, and implies that our knowledge of b-agonistic adrenergic substances and their interactions with minerals is incomplete