Production and processing studies on calpain-system gene markers for tenderness in Brahman cattle: 1. Growth, efficiency, temperament, and carcass characteristics

Title
Production and processing studies on calpain-system gene markers for tenderness in Brahman cattle: 1. Growth, efficiency, temperament, and carcass characteristics
Publication Date
2010
Author(s)
Cafe, Linda
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9110-0119
Email: lcafe@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:lcafe
McIntyre, Brooke Louise
Robinson, Dorothy L
Geesink, Geert
Barendse, W
Greenwood, Paul
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
American Society of Animal Science
Place of publication
United States of America
DOI
10.2527/jas.2009-2678
UNE publication id
une:7969
Abstract
Experiments were conducted concurrently at 2 locations to quantify effects and interactions of calpain-system tenderness gene markers on growth, efficiency, temperament, and carcass traits of Brahman cattle. Cattle were selected at weaning from commercial and research herds based on their genotype for commercially available calpastatin (CAST) and calpain 3 (CAPN3) gene markers for beef tenderness. Genotypes for μ-calpain gene markers (CAPN1–4751 and CAPN1–316) were also determined and included in statistical analyses. The New South Wales (NSW) herd was composed of 82 heifers and 82 castrated male cattle with 0 or 2 favorable alleles for CAST and CAPN3. The Western Australia (WA) herd was composed of 173 castrated male cattle with 0, 1, or 2 favorable alleles for CAST and CAPN3. One-half of the cattle at each site were implanted with a hormonal growth promotant (HGP: Revalor-H) during grain finishing. Cattle were backgrounded at pasture for 6 to 8 mo and grain-fed for 117 d (NSW) or 80 d (WA) before slaughter. Individually, or in combination with each other and with CAPN1–4751 status, CAST and CAPN3 status had no significant (all P > 0.05) effects on BW, growth, feed efficiency, or temperament traits. The only significant effect of CAST or CAPN3 on carcass characteristics was a small increase in rib fat with increasing number of favorable CAST alleles (P = 0.042) in the WA herd. There were no significant interactions (all P > 0.05) between the markers, or between the markers and sex or HGP treatment apart from CAST × HGP for area of the M. longissimus lumborum (P = 0.024) in the NSW experiment. Favorable CAST or CAPN3 alleles appear unlikely to have detrimental effects on growth, efficiency, temperament, or carcass characteristics of Brahman cattle; however, some effects evident for CAPN1 status indicate the need for further production studies on effects of these markers. Overall, the findings of the present study indicate that calpain-system gene markers are suitable for use in marker-assisted selection to improve meat tenderness in Brahman cattle without negative effects on other production and carcass characteristics.
Link
Citation
Journal of Animal Science, 88(9), p. 3047-3058
ISSN
1525-3163
0021-8812
Start page
3047
End page
3058

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