Of all the meat quality traits, tenderness is considered the most important with regard to eating quality and market value. In this study we have utilised genome wide association studies (GWAS) for peak shear force (PSF) of loin muscle as a measure of tenderness for 1,976 crossbred commercial pigs, genotyped for 42,721 informative SNPs using the Illumina PorcineSNP60 Beadchip. Four 1 Mb genomic...

Restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) have been identified at the bovine calpastatin locus. The objective of the present study was to determine whether these polymorphisms are related to variations in calpastatin activity or beef tenderness in unrelated animals of mixed breeding. A sample of 83 crossbred steers from sires representing eight different breeds was examined to determine ...

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the effect of pelvic suspension on beef with different background and different genders. The response to pelvic suspension was studied in longissimus, semimembranosus, adductor, gluteus and psoas muscles from young bulls, bulls, heifers and cows. Prolonged ageing time until 14 days was evaluated for longissimus from heifers. It was concluded that pelvic...

The assessment of quality is a key factor for the meat industry, where the aim is to fulfill the consumer’s needs. In particular, tenderness is considered the most important characteristic affecting consumer perception of taste. In this paper, a Neural Network Ensemble, with feature selection based on a Sensitivity Analysis procedure, is proposed to predict lamb meat tenderness. This difficult ...

The aim of this study was to determine consumer ability to discern different levels of beef tenderness established by Warner-Bratzler shear (WBs). A panel of 220 people evaluated 60 samples of longissimus thoracis using a 5-point intensity scale (1: very tough; 5: very tender). Samples differed for commercial category, breed of animals and ageing length of meat. Shear force was measured by Inst...

Calpastatin (CAST) is an endogenous calpain inhibitor and its main function is to modulate the proteolytic action of enzymes responsible for post-mortem myofibril deterioration. The myostatin gene (GDF-8) acts as a negative regulator of skeletal muscle growth. The expression of these two genes, as well as their interaction, affects the quality of the meat, especially the tenderness phenotype. W...

The aim of the study was to compare chemical composition and quality attributes of meat between male long fat tailed sheep (n = 17) and Small East African goats (n = 17) existing in Tanzania. Animals of 1.5 to 2 yrs in age and live body weight of 22.59±0.50 kg were purchased from livestock auction markets. Animals were fasted for 18 h and slaughtered according to standard halal procedure. Left ...

Associations between polymorphisms in candidate genes and economically important meat quality traits were assessed in a commercial population of Aberdeen Angus-cross animals. A number of traits were measured including 20 carcass and sirloin measurements recorded shortly after slaughter and also following maturation, 1 mechanical measure of tenderness and 7 taste panel assessed sensory traits. P...

The objective of this study was to assess the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) developed at the calpastatin (CAST) and -calpain (CAPN1) genes with meat tenderness and palatability traits in populations with diverse genetic backgrounds. Three populations were used in the study. One population consisted of Bos taurus that included crossbred animals derived from Hereford, Angus...

In the U.S., the per capita consumption of poultry has continued to rise since the 1960’s with the largest increase in production of further processed and convenience products (Figure 1). Because of the emphasis on value-added products, the poultry industry has become focused on improving product yield and meat quality. Commonly used methods of adding value to poultry meats include brining and ...