2024-06-18 バージニア工科大学(VirginiaTech)
＜関連情報＞
- https://news.vt.edu/articles/2024/05/cals-beef-feeding-study.html
- https://academic.oup.com/tas/article/doi/10.1093/tas/txae064/7661028
市場出荷可能な去勢牛に低投入飼料を長期給与した場合の筋可塑性と肉質の発達を判定する Determining muscle plasticity and meat quality development of low-input extended fed market-ready steers
Jordan C Wicks, Alexis L Wivell, Mariane Beline, Morgan D Zumbaugh, Jocelyn S Bodmer, Con-Ning Yen, Chantal Johnson-Schuster, Thomas B Wilson, Scott P Greiner, Sally E Johnson …
Translational Animal Science Published:02 May 2024
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/tas/txae064
Abstract
In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, which ultimately led to many meat processors temporarily shutting down or reducing processing capacity. This backlog in processing capacity forced many feedlots to retain cattle for longer periods of time and assume the risk of major market fluctuations. The aim of this study was to understand how a dietary insult affects meat quality and muscle metabolism in market-ready steers (590 kg). Sixteen market-ready (590 kg) commercial Angus crossbred steers were subjected to a maintenance diet of either forage or grain for 60 d. Longissimus lumborum (LL) muscle samples were collected immediately postmortem and processed for characteristics reflecting the underlying muscle fiber type and energy state of the tissue. Despite cattle being subjected to a 60-d feeding period, there were no detectable differences (P > 0.05) in carcass characteristics, color of lean, or ultimate pH (pHu). Moreover, our data show that muscle plasticity is rather resilient, as reflected by lack of significance (P > 0.05) in oxidative and glycolytic enzymes, myosin heavy chain isoforms (MyHC), myoglobin, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) contents. These data show that market-ready steers are capable of withstanding a low-input feeding strategy up to 60 d without dramatically impacting underlying muscle characteristics and meat quality development.
Lay Summary
In March of 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The increased need for social distancing forced many meat processors to shut down or reduce processing capacity to stem plant outbreaks. Beef producers across the industry were left to shoulder the financial burden of retained ownership and assume the risk of major market fluctuations. Although global pandemics are the exception rather than the rule, fluctuations in the markets still occur that cause operations to sell cattle at inopportune times. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the resilience in low-input feeding strategies of market-ready steers (590 kg) so operations have more flexibility in marketing their assets. This study found muscle is rather resilient to dietary insult as carcass quality and yield were largely uninfluenced despite being subjected to low-input maintenance diets of either forage or grain for 60 d.
