Prenatal and pre-weaning growth and nutrition of cattle: long-term consequences for beef production

Abstract

Severe, chronic growth retardation of cattle early in life reduces growth potential, resulting in smaller animals at any given age. Capacity for long-term compensatory growth diminishes as the age of onset of nutritional restriction resulting in prolonged growth retardation declines. Hence, more extreme intrauterine growth retardation can result in slower growth throughout postnatal life. However, within the limits of beef production systems, neither severely restricted growth in utero nor from birth to weaning influences efficiency of nutrient utilisation later in life. Retail yield from cattle severely restricted in growth during pregnancy or from birth to weaning is reduced compared with cattle well grown early in life, when compared at the same age later in life. However, retail yield and carcass composition of low-and high-birth-weight calves are similar at the same carcass weight. At equivalent carcass weights, cattle grown slowly from birth to weaning have carcasses of similar or leaner composition than those grown rapidly. However, if high energy, concentrate feed is provided following severe growth restriction from birth to weaning, then at equivalent weights post-weaning the slowly-grown, small weaners may be fatter than their well-grown counterparts. Restricted prenatal and pre-weaning nutrition and growth do not adversely affect measures of beef quality. Similarly, bovine myofibre characteristics are little affected in the long term by growth in utero or from birth to weaning. Interactions were not evident between prenatal and pre-weaning growth for subsequent growth, efficiency, carcass, yield and beef-quality characteristics, within our pasture-based production systems. Furthermore, interactions between genotype and nutrition early in life, studied using offspring of Piedmontese and Wagyu sired cattle, were not evident for any growth, efficiency, carcass, yield and beef-quality parameters. We propose that within pasture-based production systems for beef cattle, the plasticity of the carcass tissues, particularly of muscle, allows animals that are growth-retarded early in life to attain normal composition at equivalent weights in the long term, albeit at older ages. However, the quality of nutrition during recovery from early life growth retardation may be important in determining the subsequent composition of young, light-weight cattle relative to their heavier counterparts. Finally, it should be emphasised that long-term consequences of more specific and/or acute environmental influences during specific stages of embryonic, foetal and neonatal calf development remain to be determined. This need for further research extends to consequences of nutrition and growth early in life for reproductive capacity.

Intramuscular fat content in meat-producing animals: development, genetic and nutritional control, and identification of putative markers

“…These results suggest that hyperplasia of adipocytes, not initially visible (and hence early differentiated), plays an important role in marbling during growth (Albrecht et al, 2006). In practice, prenatal restriction (sufficient to reduce calf birth weight) has minimal effects on IMF level (Greenwood et al, 2006;Greenwood and Cafe, 2007) unlike postnatal restriction that will clearly reduce IMF level. Because fat is deposited at a lower rate than muscle growth during the first periods of postnatal life and at a greater rate than lean tissues when animals get older, the concentration of fat in muscle (i.e.…”

Advances in research on the prenatal development of skeletal muscle in animals in relation to the quality of muscle-based food. I. Regulation of myogenesis and environmental impact

“…Papstein et al (1999) have previously shown that the total number of fibres in M. longissimus was lower in twin compared with single-born beef cattle that were heavier at birth. Greenwood and Cafe (2007) reported smaller weight and cross-sectional area of longissimus muscle in response to retarded intrauterine growth, but apparent fibre number at 30 months of age was not different. Similarly, no differences in beef quality were apparent.…”

“…Taken together, these sheep and cattle studies suggest that restricted foetal growth resulting in low birth weight has similar consequences for postnatal growth rate and carcass composition as described in the pig and that this is related to myofibre number and/or muscular DNA content, whereas the effects on meat quality seem to be marginal. Species specificities in the nutritional foetal programming have been observed between ovine and bovine, due to differences in the timing of placental and foetal growth (Greenwood and Cafe, 2007) In conclusion, impaired myogenesis resulting in low skeletal myofibre and myonuclear numbers is considered one of the main reasons for the negative long-term consequences of IUGR on muscle growth.…”

“…Environmental impact on skeletal muscle development and consequences for animal growth, carcass and meat quality Prenatal and early postnatal nutrition There is evidence for prenatal effects of nutrition on postnatal development of skeletal muscle in a variety of species, but mainly in young offspring of sheep, pigs, cattle and laboratory animals (Greenwood and Cafe, 2007;Brameld and Daniel, 2008;Funston et al, 2010). To investigate the effects of in utero nutrition in mammals, two experimental models have been considered in this respect: first, the natural variation in birth weight of litter-or twin-bearing animals, which is most probably a result of different levels of nutrition in utero, and second, changes in maternal nutrition at different stages of pregnancy.…”

Foetal bovine intermuscular adipose tissue exhibits histological and metabolic features of brown and white adipocytes during the last third of pregnancy

“…Moreover, foetal growth of AT is thought to be a critical factor contributing to adult AT mass and thus to the lifelong productivity of the offspring based on (1) a strong postnatal hypertrophy of adipocytes, which mainly increase in number during the foetal growth (Vernon, 1986) and (2) evidence for foetal programming of postnatal AT growth in bovines (Greenwood and Cafe, 2007).…”