Genetic correlations of fatty acid composition in subcutaneous adipose tissue with meat quality and sensory attributes in beef cattle

Clinical studies have revealed that the type of dietary fat (or fatty acid composition) has a more profound impact on human health than the amount of fat in the diet. Previous studies have shown that fatty acid contents are influenced by animal genetics to some extent, indicating a potential to improve fatty acid composition of beef through genetic selection. However, it remains unclear on how selection of fatty acid composition would affect other meat quality and sensory traits. This study estimated heritability of 5 meat quality traits including drip loss, pH, beef flavor intensity, off flavor, sustained juiciness, and their genetic correlations with 25 individual and grouped fatty acids in subcutaneous adipose tissue of a population of 1366 finishing heifers and steers. Heritabilities of the 5 meat quality and sensory traits were generally low (0.02±0.04 to 0.17±0.07), and more than half of the genetic correlations were low as well (< 0.30 in magnitude). However, moderate to moderately strong antagonistic genetic relationships were found, which included unhealthy 16:0 fatty acid with sustained juiciness (0.44±0.32), ai17:0 fatty acid and branch chain fatty acid with pH (-0.66±0.17 and -0.31±0.27, respectively), and n-6:n-3 ratio with drip loss (-0.51±0.22). The estimates of these genetic correlations will help in designing multiple trait selection indexes to minimize unfavourable impacts of selection of fatty acids on meat quality and sensory traits, and to maximize economic returns when fatty acid composition, meat quality and sensory attributes are included as economically relevant traits in the breeding objective.