Fetal programming in ruminant animals: understanding the skeletal muscle development to improve meat quality

Abstract

The intrauterine environment is crucial for the skeletal muscle formation, which depends on maternal supplies for an adequate growth and development.

Disturbs involving maternal feed restriction or overfeeding directly affect the offspring’s skeletal muscle composition, influencing the final meat quality.

The nutritional manipulation during the intrauterine period contributes to achieving desirable meat quality traits, such as marbling and tenderness.

Metabolism plays an important role in providing metabolites that are used as substrates in epigenetics mechanisms, which can contribute to phenotypes that are more desirable and establish phenotype inheritance across generations.