Developmental Programming and Growth of Livestock Tissues for Meat Production

Paul L Greenwood; Alan W Bell

doi:10.1016/j.cvfa.2019.02.008

Developmental Programming and Growth of Livestock Tissues for Meat Production

Vet Clin North Am Food Anim Pract. 2019 Jul;35(2):303-319. doi: 10.1016/j.cvfa.2019.02.008.

Authors

Paul L Greenwood¹, Alan W Bell²

Affiliations

¹ NSW Department of Primary Industries, Armidale Livestock Industries Centre, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales 2351, Australia. Electronic address: paul.greenwood@dpi.nsw.gov.au.
² Department of Animal Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-4801, USA.

PMID: 31103183
DOI: 10.1016/j.cvfa.2019.02.008

Abstract

Maternal regulation of fetal development has consequences for growth and development of carcass tissues. Severely restricted fetal growth can reduce postnatal growth capacity, resulting in smaller-for-age animals that take longer to reach market weights but has little effect on feedlot efficiency or carcass and meat quality. Specific nutritional supplementation, particularly during later pregnancy, may limit fetal growth retardation and enhance postnatal growth capacity and carcass characteristics, and may improve development of intramuscular fat. Continued improvements in understanding developmental processes and their regulation will increase future capacity to improve growth, efficiency, carcasses, and meat quality through developmental programming.

Keywords: Carcass; Developmental programming; Feed efficiency; Fetus; Maternal nutrition; Meat quality.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Animal Feed
Animal Husbandry / methods*
Animals
Body Composition
Dietary Supplements
Female
Fetal Development
Livestock / growth & development*
Meat*
Pregnancy