Urotensin 2 and its Receptor as Candidate Genes for Beef Marbling Score and Subcutaneous Fat Depth

Significant improvements in animal performance, efficiency and carcass and meat quality have been made over the years through the application of standard animal breeding and selection techniques. However, such classical animal breeding techniques require several years of genetic evaluation of performance records on individual animals and their relatives and are therefore very expensive. Other efforts have been made to improve productivity and quality through the application of such management practices as the use of feed additives, animal hormonal implants and chemotherapeutics. However, there is significant political and regulatory resistance to the introduction and use of such methodologies. Such methodologies are also non-inheritable and need to be applied differently in every production system. 

 

A method for identifying a bovine as having: a higher relative amount of monounsaturated fatty acid (rMUFA) in beef fat phenotype as compared to the general population of bovines; a lower Δ9 desaturase activity as measured by 16:1/16:0 ratio (R2) phenotype as compared to the general population of bovines; and a smaller ribeye area (REA) phenotype as compared to the general population of bovines.