Growth Hormone Gene Polymorphism in Relation to Beef Cattle Carcass Quality
Татьяна Седых, Rinat Gizatullin, I. Yu. Dolmatova, Igor V. Gusev, Л. А. Калашникова
Abstract
Abstract—Meat productivity and meat quality are determined by both paratypical and genetic factors. In this regard, investigating the genetic material for the presence of desirable allele combinations of genes associated with growth and development traits, as well as meat qualities of animals, has scientific and practical significance. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between growth hormone gene polymorphism and beef cattle carcass quality. A scientific-economic experiment was carried out in the period from 2014 to 2017. Fattening bull-calves of the Hereford (115 animals) and Limousin (114 animals) breeds were genotyped using a polymerase chain reaction followed by subsequent analysis of restriction fragment length polymorphism (SNP GH-L127V). It was revealed that the studied bull-calves have a similar distribution of genotypes; the homozygous genotype GHLL (47.83 and 52.63%) and allele GHL (0.69 and 0.71%) were the most common. It was found that, compared to GHVV bull-calves, GHLL bull-calves had statistically significantly higher indicators of preslaughter live weight, carcass meat weight, slaughter weight, and loin-eye area; in Hereford cattle, slaughter yield was also higher. The results of examining the morphological composition of half-carcasses proved the high impact of SNP GH-L127V on the chilled carcass weight and the meat content. These figures were statistically significantly higher for half-carcasses of GHLL and GHLV bull-calves compared to GHVV animals. Analysis of the weight and yield of natural anatomical parts of half-carcasses obtained from Hereford and Limousin bull-calves with different genotypes did not reveal a significant difference between the indicators. However, for both breeds, animals with genotype GHLL had higher chilled half-carcass weight and weight of their natural anatomical parts than animals with genotype GHVV. Thus, SNP GH-L127V genotyping can be used as an additional criterion in breeding and selection of animals to improve meat qualities of cattle.