Molecular basis for residual feed intake in beef cattle.
نویسندگان
چکیده
Feed provision is one of the greatest costs of beef production and, with the increasing costs of feed, will remain so for the foreseeable future. Improvement in efficiency has the potential to not only increase profits for cattle producers, but also to decrease the environmental footprint of beef cattle production. Both are important in addressing the challenges of increasing feed costs and land pressure. Residual feed intake (RFI) has increasingly become the measure of choice when evaluating feed efficiency in beef cattle, especially because it is independent of growth and BW. The main inhibitor to adoption of RFI remains the cost and technical difficulty in measuring the trait. This makes RFI a prime candidate for marker-assisted selection because the trait is moderately heritable and DNA or other predictive markers could be used in selection schemes. Although multiple markers have been described over several studies, no major gene affecting RFI has been found. However, a combination of genetic markers, when examined jointly, can explain a large proportion of the genetic variation. Two main barriers remain before full adoption of markers for genetic evaluation and marker-assisted selection can be implemented. First, the genetic interaction of genes affecting RFI on other traits is, as yet, not fully understood. Second the numbers of animals with high quality estimates of RFI remains small. However, current developments indicate that these challenges will soon be overcome.
منابع مشابه
Genetics of efficient feed utilization and national cattle evaluation: a review.
Selection for the wide range of traits for which most beef breed associations calculate expected progeny differences focus on increasing the outputs of the production system, thereby increasing the genetic potential of cattle for reproductive rates, weights, growth rates, and end-product yield. Feed costs, however, represent a large proportion of the variable cost of beef production and genetic...
متن کاملPhysiological basis for residual feed intake.
Residual feed intake (RFI) is a measure of feed efficiency that is independent of level of production, such as size and growth rate in beef cattle, and thus is a useful new trait for studying the physiological mechanisms underlying variation in feed efficiency. Five major physiological processes are likely to contribute to variation in RFI, these being processes associated with intake of feed, ...
متن کاملSystems genetics and genome-wide association approaches for analysis of feed intake, feed efficiency, and performance in beef cattle.
Feed intake, feed efficiency, and weight gain are important economic traits of beef cattle in feedlots. In the present study, we investigated the physiological processes underlying such traits from the point of view of systems genetics. Firstly, using data from 1334 Nellore (Bos indicus) cattle and 943,577 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), a genome-wide association analysis was performed ...
متن کاملDuration of performance tests for growth rate, feed intake and feed efficiency in four biological types of beef cattle
Data from the centralised performance tests for young beef bulls in South Africa were used to determine the minimum test duration required to obtain an accurate measure of feed intake, growth rate and two measures of feed efficiency: feed conversion ratio and residual feed intake. Five breeds from four different biological types were used to investigate whether different duration tests are requ...
متن کاملResidual Feed Intake: Animal Performance, Carcass Quality and Body Composition
Feed efficiency has a major influence on the unit cost of beef cattle production. Gibb and McAllister (1999) have reported that a 5% improvement in feed efficiency has an economic impact four times greater than a 5% improvement in average daily gain. In addition, the cost of feed is second only to fixed costs in importance to the profitability of commercial beef operations (Basarab, 1999). The ...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید
ثبت ناماگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید
ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Journal of animal science
دوره 87 14 Suppl شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2009