Genetic Correlations Between Carcass and Meat Quality Traits of Adult Cows and Similar Traits of Young Bulls in French Charolais Beef Cattle

Abstract Text: The present work aims at assessing the genetic determinism of carcass and meat quality of adult cows in relation to similar traits measured on young bulls. In a purebred Charolais herd, 546 cows and 1,386 young bulls, progeny of 72 sires, were slaughtered at 7 years and 17 months of age respectively. Carcass yield (CY), muscularity (CM), internal fat weight (CIF) and 6^th rib fat content (CRF) were measured on all animals among which 468 cows and 806 young bulls were genotyped with the Illumina BovineSNP50® Beadchip. In addition muscle intramuscular lipid (ML) and collagen (MC) contents were measured on 196 and 734 animals respectively. The close genetic correlation estimated between both genders for CY and CRF was concurrent with a number of common QTL among which a very strong one in the region of myostatin gene on chromosome 2.

Keywords: beef traits, beef cows, QTL