Study on characteristics of muscle fiber from six breeds of cattle in China

The objective of this study was to investigate the characteristics of different breeds of cattle in China and provide technical parameters for the production of superior quality beef and breed selection.Fiber characteristics of longissimus dorsi,musculi psoas major and biceps femoris in six Chinese breeds of cattle were studied using cryostat section and enzyme succinate dehydrogenase(SDH) staining.1) The percentage of red muscle(R type) of longissimus dorsi in Luxi cattle and Limousine(32.7% and 29.5%) is significantly higher than that of others breeds(P0.05);While,the percentage of R muscle fiber types of musculi psoas major and biceps femoris is the highest in Jinnan cattle and Luxi cattle(42.7% and 48.7% respectively).2) The diameter of all the three muscle fiber types of longissimus dorsi(60.009,61.109,67.800 μm) in Qinchuan is significantly thicker than that of the other breeds cattle(P0.05);The diameter of Red and Intermediate types of muscle fiber of musculi psoas major and biceps femoris in Qinchuan and Jinnan cattle is significantly thicker than that in other four breeds of cattle(P0.05).3) The density of all the R(216.667 and 189.583 num/mm2) and W(200.926 and 261.11 num/mm2) muscle fiber types of the musculi psoas major in Piemontese and Limousine is significantly higher than the one in other breeds of cattle(P0.05);The density of the R muscle fiber types of the longissimus dorsi and biceps femoris in Luxi cattle is higher than that in other breeds of cattle.4) For the same breed,the percentage of the three muscle fiber type in different part of the body in six breeds of cattle has no obvious consistency.The diameter of longissimus dorsi muscle fiber is significantly thicker than that of musculi psoas major in the five breeds of cattle(P0.05),except for Jinnan breed whose biceps femoris has the thickest diameter of muscle fiber.Also,the density of muscle fiber of musculi psoas major in the other five breeds is significantly higher than that of longissimus dorsi and biceps femoris(P0.05) except for the Jinnan.The percentage,diameter and density of muscle fiber of the same part have differences in different breeds.With one exception for Jinnan,the density of muscle fiber of musculi psoas part is highest and the diameter of longissimus dorsi muscle fiber is thicker than that of musculi psoas in other five cattle breeds,but the Jinnan cattle has its own characteristics.