Does the Rearing Management following by Charolais Cull Cows Influence the Qualities of Carcass and Beef Meat?

This study characterized, for the first time, the rearing managements (from birth to slaughter) applied throughout the cull cows' life and observed the effect of these managements on the carcass and meat properties. From the individual data of 371 Charolais cull cows, three rearing managements were defined and characterized with 60 rearing factors. The results showed that the rearing managements had low effects on the carcass and meat properties.

Effects of Rearing Management Applied throughout the Charolais Young Bulls' Life on Carcass and Meat Quality.

The aim of this work was to study, for the first time, the effects of the rearing management (from birth to slaughter) applied throughout the life of young bulls on carcass and meat quality. Five rearing managements were defined statistically, from a combination of 30 rearing factors, using a hierarchical clustering on principal components. This study considered the individual data of 179 Charolais young bulls from commercial farms.

Characterization of Four Rearing Managements and Their Influence on Carcass and Meat Qualities in Charolais Heifers.

The study aim was to identify the effects of the rearing management applied throughout the heifers' life on the carcass (e.g., conformation, marbling, fat) and meat (color, texture, and sensory profiles) properties.

Survey data of rearing practices applied throughout the life of beef heifers from 45 mountain farms in France and main parameters of the related carcasses.

This paper presents data of rearing practices collected by survey from 45 beef heifers breeders. All the breeders were members of 'Génisse Fleur d'Aubrac' protected geographical indication (PGI). The surveys were conducted face-to-face using a questionnaire which addressed the rearing practices applied throughout the animals' life.

A quantitative review of on-farm feeding practices to enhance the quality of grassland-based ruminant dairy and meat products.

In the last decades, a large body of evidence has highlighted the major role of feeding management practices in improving specific nutritional, technological and sensory quality traits of ruminant products. However, results have been mostly obtained under controlled conditions, and have been rarely validated on-farm. Therefore, a quantitative review was conducted to quantify the effects of on-farm feeding management practices on carotenoids, fat-soluble vitamins, colour, fatty acids (FAs), terpenes and sensory properties in the main animal product categories (PCs): dairy products from cattle (DC), sheep (DS) and goat (DG), and meat from cattle (MC) and sheep (MS).

What is the impact of the rearing management applied during the heifers' whole life on the toughness of five raw rib muscles in relation with carcass traits?

The aims of this study were, analysing the effects of rearing managements, carcass traits, and muscle type (M. complexus [CP], M. infraspinatus [IF], M.

Influence of the rearing managements and carcass traits on the sensory properties of two muscles: Longissimus thoracis and rectus abdominis.

The aim of this study was to analyse simultaneously the effect of rearing managements (RM), carcass traits, muscle type (longissimus thoracis, LT and rectus abdominis, RA) and their interactions on colour (system L*a*b*), sensory and rheological properties of 77 heifers. The data used were 46 rearing factors defining four RM applied during the heifers' whole life from and 5 carcass traits discriminating two carcass quality clusters (Low and High quality). The results showed that the RM had an impact on the carcass and meat quality traits.

Label free shotgun proteomics for the identification of protein biomarkers for beef tenderness in muscle and plasma of heifers.

Meat quality prediction is a priority for the beef industry. Label free shotgun proteomics was performed on Longissimus muscle and plasma from 20 crossbred Charolais x Aubrac beef heifers, classified as subgroups of 5 extreme tender and 5 extreme tough meat according to sensory evaluation, Warner Bratzler shear force, and a synthetic tenderness index. This technique identified 268 proteins in muscle and 136 in plasma.

Beef Tenderness Prediction by a Combination of Statistical Methods: Chemometrics and Supervised Learning to Manage Integrative Farm-To-Meat Continuum Data.

This trial aimed to integrate metadata that spread over farm-to-fork continuum of 110 Protected Designation of Origin (PDO)Maine-Anjou cows and combine two statistical approaches that are chemometrics and supervised learning; to identify the potential predictors of beef tenderness analyzed using the instrumental Warner-Bratzler Shear force (WBSF). Accordingly, 60 variables including WBSF and belonging to 4 levels of the continuum that are farm-slaughterhouse-muscle-meat were analyzed by Partial Least Squares (PLS) and three decision tree methods (C&RT: classification and regression tree; QUEST: quick, unbiased, efficient regression tree and CHAID: Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection) to select the driving factors of beef tenderness and propose predictive decision tools. The former method retained 24 variables from 59 to explain 75% of WBSF.

Effect of the Rearing Managements Applied during Heifers' Whole Life on Quality Traits of Five Muscles of the Beef Rib.

The aim of this work was to study the effects of four different rearing managements applied during the heifers' whole life period (WLP) on muscles from ribs in the chuck sale section. The characteristics of meat studied were the sensory, rheological, and color of the longissimus muscle (LM) and the rheological traits of four other muscles: complexus, infraspinatus, rhomboideus, and serratus ventralis. The main results showed that WLP rearing managements did not significantly impact the tenderness (sensory or rheological analyses) of the rib muscles.

Assessment of cattle inter-individual cluster variability: the potential of continuum data from the farm-to-fork for ultimate beef tenderness management.

Background: This study implemented a holistic approach based on the farm-to-fork data at the four levels of the continuum (farm - slaughterhouse - muscle - meat) to study the inter-individual cluster variability of beef tenderness. For that, 171 young bulls were selected on a large database of 480 animals according to the industrial expectations based on animal and carcass characteristics. The targeted factors were age at slaughter (14; 20 months), carcass weight (370; 470 kg), EUROP conformation (7; 15) and fatness (2.

Data from the Farmgate-to-Meat Continuum Including Omics-Based Biomarkers to Better Understand the Variability of Beef Tenderness: An Integromics Approach.

This study is based on an integromic approach of 71 young bulls' data from the farmgate-to-meat continuum including omics-based biomarkers, to understand beef tenderness variability in two muscle cuts that differ by their contractile and metabolic properties. By the means of chemometrics using partial least-squares (PLS) and principal component regressions (PCR), important variables from a list of 49 that characterize four levels of the continuum (rearing factors-carcass-muscle-meat) were identified to explain tenderness of Longissimus thoracis (LT) and Semitendinosus (ST) muscles evaluated by a sensory panel and instrumental Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF). The PLS and PCR analyses validated 16 and 15 variables for LT and 12 and 14 for ST from the whole continuum to explain sensory tenderness and WBSF, respectively.

Preliminary Study to Determinate the Effect of the Rearing Managements Applied during Heifers' Whole Life on Carcass and Flank Steak Quality.

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of rearing managements applied during a heifers' whole life on the carcass and flank steak (rectus abdominis) meat traits. For this study, rearing managements applied on 96 heifers were identified by conducting surveys in farms. A heifers' whole life was divided into three key periods: Pre-weaning, growth, and fattening.

Decision tree, a learning tool for the prediction of beef tenderness using rearing factors and carcass characteristics.

Background: The present study explored the potential use of decision trees on rearing factors (q = 10) and carcass characteristics (q = 12) for the development of prediction model rules of beef tenderness prediction/categorization. Accordingly, 308 young bulls were used by a sensory panel to evaluate the tenderness potential of ribeye steaks grilled at 55 °C. A classification and regression tree method was implemented and allowed the prediction of tenderness using (i) rearing factors, (ii) carcass characteristics or (iii) both.

Associations among animal, carcass, muscle characteristics, and fresh meat color traits in Charolais cattle.

This study investigated the effects of animal, carcass and muscle characteristics on initial color traits of steaks from 887 Charolais cattle. First, the fixed factors of year of birth, experiment and sex had strong impacts on color traits. From the covariates, increased age lead to intense color (low h*, -1.

Prediction of beef carcass and meat quality traits from factors characterising the rearing management system applied during the whole life of heifers.

In this study, four prediction models were developed by logistic regression using individual data from 96 heifers. Carcass and sensory rectus abdominis quality clusters were identified then predicted using the rearing factors data. The obtained models from rearing factors applied during the fattening period were compared to those characterising the heifers' whole life.

Identification of Biomarkers Associated with the Rearing Practices, Carcass Characteristics, and Beef Quality: An Integrative Approach.

Data from birth to slaughter of cull cows allowed using a PCA-based approach coupled with the iterative K-means algorithm the identification of three rearing practices classes. The classes were different in their carcass characteristics. Old cows raised mainly on pasture have better carcass characteristics, while having an equivalent tenderness, juiciness, flavor, intramuscular fat content, and pHu to those fattened with hay or haylage.

Prediction of beef carcass and meat traits from rearing factors in young bulls and cull cows.

The aim of this study was to predict the beef carcass and LM (thoracis part) characteristics and the sensory properties of the LM from rearing factors applied during the fattening period. Individual data from 995 animals (688 young bulls and 307 cull cows) in 15 experiments were used to establish prediction models. The data concerned rearing factors (13 variables), carcass characteristics (5 variables), LM characteristics (2 variables), and LM sensory properties (3 variables).

Establishment of ruminal bacterial community in dairy calves from birth to weaning is sequential.

Aim: Establishment of ruminal bacterial community in dairy calves.

Methods And Results: Rumen bacterial community was analysed on 6 calves bred according to commercial practices from day one to weaning at day 83 of age, using 454 16S rRNA-based pyrosequencing. Samples taken at day 1 did not produce amplicons.

Repeated acidosis challenges and live yeast supplementation shape rumen microbiota and fermentations and modulate inflammatory status in sheep.

This study aimed to investigate the impact of repeated acidosis challenges (ACs) and the effect of live yeast supplementation (Saccharomyces cerevisiae I-1077, SC) on rumen fermentation, microbial ecosystem and inflammatory response. The experimental design involved two groups (SC, n=6; Control, n=6) of rumen fistulated wethers that were successively exposed to three ACs of 5 days each, preceded and followed by resting periods (RPs) of 23 days. AC diets consisted of 60% wheat-based concentrate and 40% hay, whereas RPs diets consisted of 20% concentrate and 80% hay.

Modification of activities of the ruminal ecosystem and its bacterial and protozoan composition during repeated dietary changes in cows.

Dietary change alters the ruminal ecosystem and can be regarded as a disturbance. Studying the response to a disturbance can help us understand the behavior of the ecosystem. Our work is concerned with the response of the ruminal ecosystem (composition and activities) during the application of repeated dietary disturbances to 6 dry Holstein cows.

Rapid adaptation of the bacterial community in the growing rabbit caecum after a change in dietary fibre supply.

This work aimed to study the response of the growing rabbit caecal ecosystem (bacterial community and caecal environmental parameters) after a switch from a control to a low-fibre diet (LFD). A group of 160 rabbits were fed ad libitum a control diet (ADF: 20.4%) from weaning (36 days).

Establishment of ruminal enzyme activities and fermentation capacity in dairy calves from birth through weaning.

The objectives of this study were to characterize the establishment of ruminal fermentation and enzymatic activities in dairy calves from birth to weaning (d 83). Six Holstein calves, immediately separated from their mother at birth, were fed colostrum for 3 d after birth, and thereafter milk replacer, starter pelleted concentrate, and hay until d 83 of age. Ruminal samples were collected from each calf every day for the first 10 d, and additionally at d 12, 15, 19, 22, 26, 29, 33, 36, 40, 43, 47, 50, 55, 62, 69, and 83.

Changes over time in the bacterial communities associated with fluid and food particles and the ruminal parameters in the bovine rumen before and after a dietary change.

This work aimed to study the changes over time in the bacterial communities associated with the fluid and food particle fractions of the cow rumen following a change in diet. Four cannulated cows were fed a hay-based diet for 21 days and were then switched to a corn-silage-based diet for 33 days. The bacterial communities were regularly characterized by capillary electrophoresis - single-strand conformation polymorphism (CE-SSCP) and qPCR, and the main ruminal parameters were determined.

Postnatal development of the rabbit caecal microbiota composition and activity.

This study describes the development of the rabbit caecum microbiota and its metabolic activities from the neonatal (day 2) until the subadult period (day 70). The caecal microbiota was analysed using 16S rRNA gene approaches coupled with capillary electrophoresis single-stranded conformation polymorphism (CE-SSCP) and qPCR. At day 2, rabbits harboured population levels up to 8.