DNA profiling to shed light on key production traits

Merial Animal Health has expanded its IGENITY DNA profiling service aimed at using an animal’s hair sample to give producers information on traits such as carcass weight, red meat yield and ribeye area.

Also highlighted will be hidden traits such as meat quality and tenderness scored on a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high).

Established beef breeders using the service have found only a few breeding animals have achieved the maximum score for meat tenderness, for example, suggesting producers could go further to improve the quality of British beef.