Researchers could make great strides in beef improvement if they could find a simple genetic test that separates tough meat from tender.
Steve Moore, head of beef genomics at the University of Alberta, says producers aren’t paid for tender meat, so they select for growth and hope the beef is improved with technology.
“Everything you do to that piece of meat costs something, so if you can start at a better point and reduce the number of things you have to do to that meat to make it acceptable, then we can make money,” he told the National Beef Quality Symposium held in Calgary July 8.
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He said a genetic test could permanently remove the poor performing cattle.
“There is a lot more money to be made by reducing the variance,” Moore said.
“If you can cut that bottom 20 or 30 percent off the equation, that is where immediate profit can be made.”
Researchers have identified the highly heritable calpastatin and calpain genes that are important in meat aging and tenderness.
The information requires more testing because scientists know most genes affect more than one trait and many genes control many traits.
Canadian universities and government have formed alliances to put the technology together and learn how biology and environment effect animals and their offspring.
Scientists sequenced the bovine genome last year, and researchers are now looking for the mutations, correlations and subtle relationships of genes and traits.
“We are trying to understand how the genetic makeup of the animal affects the whole animal performance,” he said. “We are not interested in one gene. We are interested in how all the genes interact.”
Different genome sequences have been run on bulls from different breeds.
“These animals basically have the same genetic makeup with subtle differences,” he said.
The greatest differences appear in the Japanese Wagyu.
“We defined in that process millions of mutations in cattle that may or may not have an affect on meat quality.”
