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The development of different muscles and adipose tissues during growth was investigated in commercial Japanese Black (JB) cattle and compared with breeds of the largest variation to be found in Europe. Animals, reared under typical conditions for Japanese and European beef production systems, gained similar body weights but different carcass composition at 24months of age. The carcass of JB contained more adipose tissue and the least proportion of muscle. The longissimus muscle of JB developed extraordinary amounts of 23.3% intramuscular fat (IMF) at 24months of age, compared from 0.6% to 4.7% in European breeds. The relationships between IMF content in the longissimus muscle and different adipose tissue weights indicate that a large amount of "waste fat" is accreted with every percent of IMF. However in JB, the good ability of IMF deposition is associated with relatively least development of "waste fat", as a result of unique breed characteristics combined with special feeding system.

Sixty longissimus (L) muscle chops were selected according to marbling score in order to develop a technique for the quantitative description of marbling fat by means of computer image analysis (CIA) and study its relationship with intramuscular fat content and shear force variation in pork. L muscle samples were taken from gilts belonging to three genetic lines differing in carcass leanness, namely Large White (LW), Meishan-derived dam line (M) and Synthetic Genex 3000 (SG). SG gilts had leaner loins (P

In Charolais (CH) as beef and German Holstein (H) as dairy cattle, differences in concentrations of hormones regulating partitioning of nutrients, are expected. Charolais (n=13) and Holstein (n=12) bulls 9 months of age were fed every 4 h. Blood samples were taken every 20 min over 6 h. The average plasma concentration of growth hormone (GH) did not differ, but differences in pulse frequency (CH 4.7 pulses/6 h, S.D. 0.9; H 3.5 pulses/6 h, S.D. 1.2, P=0.011) and amplitude were observed (CH 6.3 ng/ml, S.D. 2.8; H 10.1 ng/ml, S.D. 4.7, P=0.026). Plasma concentrations of insulin, glucagon, and leptin also differed (insulin: CH 18.7 μU/ml, S.E. 1.7; H 28.1 μU/ml, S.E. 1.7, P

Ruminants transform feed components preferentially in body mass or milk. The accretion type of cattle are apt in accreting feed as meat and fat, while the secretion type of cattle secrete metabolised feed as milk. The objective of this study was to investigate the growth- and type-related differences in muscle fibers, adipocytes, and hormones in two metabolic types of cattle. Biopsy samples of semitendinosus muscle and blood were taken at 6, 8, 10, 13, and 16 months of age from 13 bulls of each metabolic type (Charolais—CH, German Holstein—H). Postnatal growth was characterized by a nearly 2-fold increase in muscle fiber area, while a constant fiber type frequency was observed. Differences in the growth potential between CH and H bulls were not only found in a higher daily weight gain or higher weight for CH cattle, but were also caused by stronger muscle fiber growth in that cattle type. The higher muscle growth potential of CH was accompanied by lower fat accretion and metabolically linked with lower plasma concentrations of insulin, glucagon, and leptin. The amount of subcutaneous adipose tissue was directly correlated with leptin in CH and with insulin and glucagon in H bulls.

Body weight and fat mass vary distinctly between German Holstein (dairy cattle) and Charolais (beef cattle). The aim of this study was to determine whether the expression of the obese (Ob) gene and lipoprotein lipase (LPL) gene in fat tissues and expression of the long isoform leptin receptor (Ob-Rb) gene in the hypothalamus were different between these two cattle breeds. Body weight and the area of longissimus muscle cross-section of German Holstein were lower (P

The sharp upper bound of the kurtosis γ2 is derived for unimodal standardized distributions with skewness γ1 and support [a, b].