Marbling Fat in Livestock
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Products".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2024) | Viewed by 2267
Special Issue Editors
Interests: nutrition; physiology; metabolism; meat quality; milk quality; feedstuffs; herbs; feed additives; oxidative stress
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: swine production; carcass quality; fat deposition and lipid metabolism; intramuscular fat and ultrasound for carcass composition
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue of Animals is dedicated to meat quality, in particular as it relates to intramuscular fat (IMF), which is one of the most important traits for meat-producing animals from management and economic perspectives. Indeed, the meat industry and consumers rate meat quality according to muscle fat marbling. In this Issue, the study of IMF can be focused on any livestock species (ruminants, swine, poultry, etc.) and on different aspects of its origin, development and meat quality attributes, either from the standpoint of genetics, genomics, biochemistry, histology, physiology, nutritional management, industrial characteristics or assessment methodology, as well as other related research fields including animal modelling for human health and nutrition.
Some of these aspects have gained much attention in animal production, such as the possibilities for the divergent selection of subcutaneous fat thickness and IMF content, as animal fat was highly valuable in the past and now only IMF is appreciated but has been partly lost when selecting for lean animals. Other examples are the studies on fatty acid profiles and lipid metabolism regulation of intramuscular versus subcutaneous fat. Muscle marbling has been induced by vitamin A or lysine deficiencies as well as hyperlipidic or hypoproteic diets (including acorn-feeding in the free-range management of Iberian pigs since ancient times) or other factors (e.g., castration). These studies involve also in vivo and postmortem IMF prediction methodologies (ultrasonography, computed tomography, image analysis, etc.). Trends in food consumption show increased demand for high-quality food products, especially those of animal origin. The growing awareness of food consumers confronts us with new scientific challenges. Consequently, health-related aspects of IMF composition profiles are extensively studied from the medical and zootechnical points of view.
We hope this monographic Special Issue will gather different studies on IMF that will result in new conclusions. Therefore, we are pleased to invite you to contribute your articles to this Special Issue.
Dr. Edyta Kowalczuk-Vasilev
Dr. Mercedes Izquierdo
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
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Keywords
- fat deposition
- intramuscular fat
- lipid metabolism
- meat quality
- nutrition
- health
