Genetic parameter estimates for sensory and meat quality traits measured at 3 and 29 days of aging of beef from Canadian crossbred cattle

Genetic parameters were estimated for objective and subjective traits assessed after 3 and 29 days aging in meat samples of 1154 commercial beef cattle. Meat attributes [Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF), intramuscular fat (IMF), and pH] and sensory traits [flavor intensity (FI), off-flavor (OF), connective tissue (CT), overall tenderness (OT), sustained juiciness (SJ), and overall palatability (OP)] were available. The animal mixed model used included additive genetic and residual effects as random effects, contemporary group as fixed effect and genomic breed composition and slaughter age as covariates. Genetic parameters were estimated using airemlf90 software and single-step genomic BLUP. Heritability estimates for OT (3 and 29 d), OP (3 d) and OF (29 d) were of moderate magnitude ranging from 0.18 ± 0.07 to 0.31 ± 0.07. Heritabilities were negligible or of low magnitude for all other sensory traits with values ranging from 0.03 ± 0.05 to 0.14 ± 0.07. Among objectively measured traits, the estimate of heritability for meat pH was moderate at day 3 (0.20 ± 0.08) and negligible at 29 (0.00 ± 0.05). For IMF and WBSF the heritability estimates were 0.43 ± 0.09 and 0.54 ± 0.09, and 0.22 ± 0.07 and 0.19 ± 0.07 for day 3 and 29, respectively. Genetic correlations between days for each sensory trait tended to be of high and positive magnitude ranging from 0.54 ± 0.60 to 0.99 ± 0.28. Genetic and phenotypic correlations of subjectively assessed traits were consistent in direction and magnitude with WBSF (negative) and IMF (positive) suggesting that genetic selection based on objectively measured traits can be used for meat quality improvement and to increase consumer satisfaction. In addition, selection can be implemented using sensory traits collected after 3 days of aging.