Assessment of the influence of testosterone concentration in blood serum on meat productivity and meat quality of Aberdeen Angus bulls

¹ Federal Scientific Center for Biological Systems and Agricultural Technologies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Orenburg, Russia
² Bashkir State Agrarian University, Ufa, Russia
³ Russian State Agrarian University - Moscow Agricultural Academy named after K.A. Timiryazev, Moscow, Russia

^* Corresponding author: forleh@mail.ru

Abstract

The studies were carried out on Aberdeen Angus bulls at the age of 18 months. The animals, depending on the level of somatotropin in the blood serum, were divided into three groups using the percentile method: group I – up to the 25th percentile; Group II – within the 25-75 percentile; Group III – above the 75th percentile. Testosterone content was determined in blood serum by enzyme immunoassay using an automatic microplate analyzer Infinite F200 PRO. To study the meat qualities of the bulls, a control slaughter was carried out. It was established that bulls with the maximum concentration of testosterone in the blood serum were superior to individuals with the minimum concentration in pre-slaughter live weight by 3.4% (P≤0.05), in fresh carcass weight by 4.7% (P≤0.05), slaughter weight – by 3.6% (P≤0.01), pulp weight – by 5.4% (P≤0.05), protein accumulation in pulp – by 8.3% (P≤0.05), dry matter content – by 0.24% (P≤0.05), protein concentration – by 0.65% (P≤0.05), protein quality indicator – by 1.3% (P≤0.05) ). At the same time, they were inferior to them in weight and yield of internal fat by 12.1 (P≤0.001) and 0.6% (P≤0.05), respectively, in terms of bone content in the carcass - by 0.63% (P≤0 .05), relative fat content by 0.84% (P≤0.05).