REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY Identifying the underlying problem of equine back pain and diseases of the spine are significant problems in veterinary orthopaedics. A study to validate a preliminary biomechanical model of the equine back based on CT images including longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle is therefore important. OBJECTIVES Validation of the back model by comparing the shortening of LD mu...

Energy intake profoundly influences many endocrine axes which in turn play a central role in development. The specific influence of a short period of mild hypothyroidism, similar to that induced by undernutrition, in regulating muscle development has been assessed in a large mammal during early postnatal life. Hypothyroidism was induced by providing methimazole and iopanoic acid in the feed of ...

We conducted a series of investigations in order to elucidate role of nutritional status in regulating GLUT expression and energy metabolism in porcine muscle. Firstly, the role of mild undernutrition in regulating muscle GLUT gene expression and function was studied in growing pigs (3 wk of age) on a high (H) or low (L) food intake (H = 2L) at 35°C or 26°C. Low food intake selectively upregula...

One of the features that distinguish mammals from other groups of terrestrial vertebrates is the structure and relative size of their epaxial muscles. Yet we have only a superficial understanding of the role these muscles play in locomotion. To address their locomotor function, we recorded the electrical activity of the iliocostalis, longissimus dorsi and multifidus muscles of trotting dogs. Ac...

Recently, pork with marbling has received attention as good quality pork and scientists are required to develop methods to produce pork with reasonable amounts of intramuscular fat (IMF). The aim of this review is to describe studies relevant to promotion of IMF accumulation in porcine muscle by nutritional regulation. The main focus is on effect of dietary lysine levels. First, we found dietar...

To study the stability of meat color in post-slaughter storage process Qinchuan cattle, three different bovine muscles, including longissimus dorsi (LD), knee round (KR) and psoas major (PM) muscles were selected as research objects to determine changes color, myoglobin (Mb) relative content, pH, oxygen consumption rate (OCR), total iron, heme iron (HI) other contents during storage. With prolo...

The increase in fractional rate of protein synthesis (Ks) in the skeletal muscle of growing rats during the transition from fasted to fed state has been explained by the synergistic action of a rise in plasma insulin and branched-chain amino acids (BCAA). Since growing lambs also exhibit an increase in Ks with level of feed intake, the objective of the present study was to determine if this syn...