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Carcass and muscle characteristics of beef cull cows between 4 and 9 years of age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2007

C. Jurie ,
J-F. Martin ,
A. Listrat ,
R. Jailler ,
J. Culioli  and
B. Picard
C. Jurie*
Affiliation:
Unité de Recherches sur les Herbivores, Centre Clermont-Ferrand – Theix, 63122 Saint-Genès, Champanelle, France
J-F. Martin
Affiliation:
Qualité des Produits Animaux INRA, Centre Clermont-Ferrand – Theix, 63122 Saint-Genès, Champanelle, France
A. Listrat
Affiliation:
Unité de Recherches sur les Herbivores, Centre Clermont-Ferrand – Theix, 63122 Saint-Genès, Champanelle, France
R. Jailler
Affiliation:
Unité de Recherches sur les Herbivores, Centre Clermont-Ferrand – Theix, 63122 Saint-Genès, Champanelle, France
J. Culioli
Affiliation:
Qualité des Produits Animaux INRA, Centre Clermont-Ferrand – Theix, 63122 Saint-Genès, Champanelle, France
B. Picard
Affiliation:
Unité de Recherches sur les Herbivores, Centre Clermont-Ferrand – Theix, 63122 Saint-Genès, Champanelle, France
*
†E-mail: jurie@clermont.inra.fr
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Abstract

The effects of age and breed on carcass and muscle characteristics of cull cows slaughtered at the same fattening state between 4 and 9 years of age were analysed in four French breeds: Aubrac (AU), Charolais (CH), Limousin (LI), and Salers (SA). Muscle characteristics were determined in three muscles: longissimus thoracis (LT), semitendinosus (ST) and triceps brachii (TB). They included: (1) the % frequency, cross-sectional area and % area of the different fibre types classified according to their contraction rate and metabolic properties (slow twitch oxidative (SO), fast twitch oxidative glycolytic (FOG) and fast twitch glycolytic (FG)), (2) the isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICDH) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activities, representative of oxidative and glycolytic metabolism respectively, and (3) the total and insoluble collagen contents. Whatever the age of the animals at slaughter, the same carcass composition, fibre characteristics (% frequency, area, % area) and metabolic enzyme activities were obtained whatever the muscles considered. In contrast, important differences between breeds were observed in carcass composition (muscle, fat, bone) and enzyme activities. CH cows presented the highest final live weight and LI carcasses were characterized by higher muscle weight, lower fat and bone weights and more glycolytic muscles. Among the muscle characteristics, collagen was the most influenced by age and breed in a breed and muscle dependent manner respectively. AU and LI cows exhibited lower total and insoluble collagen contents than CH and SA cows, particularly at 6 to 7 years of age and for the LT and ST muscles. Thus collagen could explain an important part of the variability in meat quality from cull cows. In conclusion, results of this study provide consistent data on muscle characteristics of cull cows, few studies were available until then.

Keywords

age differencesbeef cowsbreed differencescarcass compositionmuscle fibres
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Science , Volume 82 , Issue 3 , June 2006 , pp. 415 - 421
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 2006

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