Muscle fibre type and meat quality

Muscle morphology and fibre type composition are briefly reviewed in relation to colour stability and tenderness in beef, and water holding capacity, colour and eating quality in pork. A large inter-muscle and inter-animal variation exists in meat quality, which is often related to metabolic and contractile properties as determined by their muscle fibre type distribution. Characteristics of different muscles may be modified in living animals by environmental conditions and genetic selection. Selection experiments based on biochemical and histochemical characteristics determined in biopsies or otherwise, and study of correlated selection responses, may lead to the development and applications of (new) muscle traits in future breeding programmes.