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Author Spotlight: Improving Beef Cattle Nutrition and Production with a Focus on Feed Efficiency and Meat Quality Traits Through Advanced Biochemical and Molecular Assays

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Muscle of dark and normal beef differs metabolically.

L T Kirkpatrick¹, J F M Gómez¹, M Beline¹

¹Virginia Tech, School of Animal Sciences, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.

|October 1, 2023

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Adverse handling reduces muscle glycogen, impacting beef quality. Atypical dark (AT) and dark-cutting (DC) beef exhibit higher oxidative properties, suggesting muscle oxidative capacity may predispose beef to dark coloration.

Keywords:

Atypical dark beef Meat color Mitochondria Myoglobin pH

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Area of Science:

Meat Science
Animal Science
Biochemistry

Background:

Adverse antemortem handling can lead to high ultimate pH and dark-cutting beef due to reduced muscle glycogen and altered postmortem energy metabolism.
The specific relationship between atypical dark (AT) beef, its energy metabolism, and tissue characteristics remains incompletely understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the tissue characteristics related to energy metabolism in normal, atypical dark (AT), and dark-cutting (DC) beef.
To elucidate the underlying biochemical differences contributing to dark beef coloration.

Main Methods:

Analysis of cattle harvested in the US and Canada.
Classification of beef into normal (pH < 5.6), AT dark (pH 5.6-5.8), and DC (pH > 5.8) categories.
Measurement of tissue characteristics including mitochondrial DNA content, oxidative enzymes, and myoglobin concentration.

Main Results:

Atypical dark beef showed higher oxidative capacity compared to normal beef, with similar glycolytic potential and nucleotide abundance.
Dark-cutting and AT dark beef exhibited significantly greater mitochondrial DNA content and oxidative enzyme activity than normal beef.
Myoglobin concentration correlated with beef color classification.

Conclusions:

Both dark-cutting (DC) and atypical dark (AT) beef possess inherently higher oxidative muscle characteristics.
Increased muscle oxidative capacity may be a contributing factor to the development of dark beef coloration.