456 Residual feed intake in beef cattle and hypothalamic regulation of appetite-related genes

Abstract:

Residual feed intake (RFI) describes an animal's feed efficiency independent of phenotypic performance. The objective of this study was to determine expression differences of genes that regulate feeding behavior in the hypothalamus between the most-efficient and least-efficient animals, and any interaction with sex. One-hundred and forty-nine beef cattle were allocated to three groups according to sex and herd origin. Animals were fed a finishing diet in confinement for 78 d to determine the RFI category for each. Within each contemporary group, the two most-efficient (n = 6) and least-efficient animals (n = 6) were selected. Hypothalamic tissue was collected immediately after slaughter for gene expression analysis using real-time RT-PCR. Of the 32 genes evaluated, expression of POMC (P = 0.06) was upregulated in steers and MTOR (P = 0.13) tended to be upregulated in heifers. The most-efficient cattle …

Año de publicación:

2017

Keywords:

Fuente:

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