Abstract:

Holstein is the major dairy breed in the Israeli milk industry, supplies about 45% of fresh beef marketed to the Israeli market each year. Holstein's meat quality, which is cultivated for the production of milk, varies according to age, physical condition, management, feeding regime, and genetic characteristics within the breed. As of today, the selection of Holstein as dairy breed, does not take into consideration the quality of meat. Since Holstein is a significant source of fresh meat marketed locally, it is necessary, to detect genetic markers that will serve as a tool for cultivating meat quality traits in this breed. Establishment of a phenotypic database will allow the measurement and quantification of organoleptic, chemical, and physical parameters) (=traits) that define meat quality in the Holstein breed. At a later stage, it will be possible to genetically map chromosomal regions harbouring genes and polymorphisms that are associated with such traits, aiming to improve the quality of the meat by means of markers-based selection.
In the current study, we created a phenotypic database for the meat of Holstein fattening calves. For this purpose, we collected (from the slaughterhouse at Beit Shean), the longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle of Israeli Holstein calves (N = 116) used to measure 12 parameters for meat quality, including key phenotypes such as tenderness, intramuscular fat content (IMF%), and water holding capacity (WHC). In addition, we extracted genomic DNA from the blood samples of these calves, which we used to detect genotypes of known genetic polymorphisms, derived from four genes (CAPN1, CAST, DGAT1, FASN) found to be associated with either with tenderness (shear force, IMF%, and fatty acid profile in meat in several cattle breeds and populations.