Mineral profile of the muscle tissue of nelore cattle submitted to different weaning protocols

• Grant number: 23/05244-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: June 26, 2023
• End date: September 20, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Nutrition and Feeding
• Principal Investigator: Guilherme Luis Pereira
• Grantee: Gustavo Lucas Bezerra Tinoco
• Supervisor: Miguel Pedro Mourato
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
• Associated to the scholarship: 22/09291-7 - DNA METHYLATION PROFILES IN THE SKELETAL MUSCLE OF WEANING AND ADULT NELORE BREED CATTLE SUBMITTED TO DIFFERENT WEANING PROTOCOLS, BP.MS

Abstract

Nutrition plays a vital role in the determination of macro and micronutrients in the meat of different species. Beef contains a number of valuable nutrients, including minerals, which are of fundamental importance for human and animal health. They participate in almost all metabolic pathways of the animal organism, having important physiological functions such as reproduction, growth, immune system and energy metabolism. During the animal's life there are critical periods that can change gene expression and metabolism through the diet, one of them is in the weaning phase, in addition, the variation in nutritional status has a direct influence on the structural components of the muscle that will be transformed into meat, such as: number and type of fiber and, consequently, mineral content. Although there are studies demonstrating relationships between minerals and meat quality characteristics, there are still few results on this topic in beef cattle, especially in Nellore cattle. In view of this, this study will have as objectives to know the mineral profile of the meat of Nellore cattle (Bos indicus) submitted to early and conventional weaning and also to analyze the relationships between mineral concentrations in the meat and animal performance characteristics and meat quality. . Subsequently, the information obtained in this study will be analyzed in relation to gene expression data in order to identify any type of gene regulation due to epigenetic modifications caused by DNA methylation that may have led to differences in the mineral composition of the analyzed sections. (AU)