Transgenic cows , known as the race of Belgian Blue is a breed of beef cattle in Belgium , are genetically modified animals with a defective gene to increase its size. This breed was first documented in 1807 by an observer named George Culley cattle . The breed originated in central and upper Belgium in the nineteenth century, from crossing local breeds with a Shorthorn breed of cattle in the UK. The modern beef breed was developed in the early fifties , by Professor Hanset , working on artificial insemination center in Liege province . Gene mutation characteristic of the breed is maintained through linebreeding to the point at which the condition was fixed in the Belgian Blue Belgian Blue race property. Belgian Blue has a natural mutation in the myostatin gene encoding the protein , myostatin . Myostatin is a protein that acts to inhibit the muscle development. This mutation also interferes with fat deposition , resulting in very lean meat The truncated myostatin gene can not function at normal capacity , resulting in accelerated muscle growth . Muscle growth is primarily due to physiological changes in muscle cells of the animals ( fibers ) hypertrophy hyperplasia a growth mode . This particular type of growth is early in the fetus of a pregnant dam , resulting in a calf born with twice the number of muscle fibers in the birth of a calf with no mutation of the myostatin gene . Besides a new born double-muscled calf birth weight compared with normal calf is significantly higher. Belgian blue cattle have improved feed conversion (FCR ), due to lower feed intake compared to weight gain . The possibility that these animals have improved FCR is due to an alteration of the composition of the body weight gain , including increased protein and decreased fat deposition .
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 11:07:53 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015