Abstract
Understanding animals' genetic potential for carcass traits is the key to genetic improvements in any beef cattle. In this study, we investigated the genetic merits of carcass traits using Hanwoo males raised in a 30-month production system (PROD30). We achieved this using a dataset comprising 6092 Hanwoo males born between 2005 and 2017 and measures of four carcass traits (carcass weight, CWT; eye muscle area, EMA; backfat thickness, BFT; and marbling score, MS). Genetic parameters were estimated using a multiple-trait animal model through the AIREMLF90 program. According to the multiple-trait model, the h2 of CWT, EMA, BFT, and MS were 0.35 ± 0.04, 0.43 ± 0.05, 0.48 ± 0.05, and 0.56 ± 0.05, respectively. The strongest genetic correlation (rg) was obtained between CWT and EMA (0.49 ± 0.07), whereas it was negligible between CWT and BFT. EMA and MS were also moderately correlated, whereas there was a relatively low negative correlation between EMA and BFT (-0.26 ± 0.08). Our study revealed a consistent indirect genetic improvement in animals from 2005 onwards. Although Hanwoo improvement has mainly focused on males under a 24-month production cycle, we observed PROD30 males to have somewhat similar genetic potential. Our results provide useful insights into the genetic merits of PROD30 males for the first time, which may facilitate future studies on them and their integration into the Hanwoo National Evaluation for genomic selection.
Highlights
Korean Hanwoo cattle are the most prized source of beef in Korea due to their high marbling and palatability [1,2]
The last male group (G3) was comprised of males produced in another special program, wherein their semen was produced at an earlier age, i.e., about 12 months, and preserved for future breeding of females once these males’ breeding values for 30-month post-slaughter carcass traits were found to be superior
In Hanwoo males, the highest phenotypic variability was found in marbling scores (MS) (38.38%)
Summary
Korean Hanwoo cattle are the most prized source of beef in Korea due to their high marbling and palatability [1,2]. The number of progenies to be tested per year per candidate bull has reduced further, which is undesirable in any proven bull selection program and could lower the accuracy of future proven bulls In this regard, the inclusion of PROD30 males in the national evaluation through a proper genetic evaluation method could help increase the number of progeny records per bull and contribute to the accuracy of evaluation in the long run. The purpose of this study was to investigate the heritability and genetic correlations among traits in PROD30 males We believe that this would provide a better understanding of their genetic merit and expand further possibilities for their genetic exploitation, especially through the genomic selection of animals
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