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Agriculture
Special Issues
Current Research and Strategies for Improving Farm Animal Meat Quality
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Current Research and Strategies for Improving Farm Animal Meat Quality

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Farm Animal Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 November 2025 | Viewed by 3051

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Nikolina Kelava Ugarković

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb, Svetošimunska Cesta 25, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: meat production and quality; game meat quality; production systems; milk production
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Ana Kaić

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb, Svetošimunska Cesta 25, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: meat production and quality; meat processing technology; sensory analysis; food safety
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Meat quality includes numerous traits that can be affected by intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Meat quality can be analysed in terms of the nutritional properties they provide for human consumption, the traits that determine they safety of the meat (hygiene and toxicology), the traits that are important for meat processing, and the set of traits that determine sensory quality. Thus, the analysis of meat quality can be approached from different points. The genetic background of a species and/or breed has an inevitable effect on farm animal meat quality and its interaction with production systems, mainly with respect to nutritional properties and pre-mortem handling results regarding the specific physio-chemical characteristics of the meat. During post-mortem handling, transport and shelf-life microorganism contamination can occur, leading to meat spoilage and unappetizing or even poisonous or infectious effects. The meat industry requires specific meat characteristics, and different post-mortem handling and treatment methods can be beneficial to improve meat quality parameters. In addition to nutritional traits, consumers are becoming more interested in the sensory characteristics of meat (juiciness, flavour, and texture), which determine meat eating quality, as well as the welfare of the animals used for meat production. Due to these broad topics, new studies are valuable sources of information on the diverse effects on meat quality parameters.

This Special Issue focuses on the current research on improving farm animal meat quality and the relevant strategies used to achieve this goal. We welcome the submission of studies that present new and valuable results regarding the effects of breeding and genetics on meat quality and the effects of production systems and nutritional strategies, welfare status, and pre- and post-mortem handling procedures on the nutritional, physio-chemical, and sensory profiling of farm animal meat quality. Both original research articles and reviews are welcome.

Dr. Nikolina Kelava Ugarković
Dr. Ana Kaić
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • breeding
  • feeding systems
  • nutritional strategies
  • welfare
  • transport practices
  • stress biomarkers
  • microbiology safety
  • post-mortem handling and carcass treatments
  • aging
  • nutritional composition
  • sensory profiling

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 2433 KiB  
Article
A Single-Cell Assessment of Intramuscular and Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue in Beef Cattle
by Mollie M. Green, Hunter R. Ford, Alexandra P. Tegeler, Oscar J. Benitez, Bradley J. Johnson and Clarissa Strieder-Barboza
Agriculture 2025, 15(14), 1545; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture15141545 - 18 Jul 2025
Abstract
Deposition of intramuscular fat (IM), also known as marbling, is the deciding factor of beef quality grade in the U.S. Defining molecular mechanisms underlying the differential deposition of adipose tissue in distinct anatomical areas in beef cattle is key to the development of [...] Read more.
Deposition of intramuscular fat (IM), also known as marbling, is the deciding factor of beef quality grade in the U.S. Defining molecular mechanisms underlying the differential deposition of adipose tissue in distinct anatomical areas in beef cattle is key to the development of strategies for marbling enhancement while limiting the accumulation of excessive subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT). The objective of this exploratory study was to define the IM and SAT transcriptional heterogeneity at the whole tissue and single-nuclei levels in beef steers. Longissimus dorsi muscle samples (9–11th rib) were collected from two finished beef steers at harvest to dissect matched IM and adjacent SAT (backfat). Total RNA from IM and SAT was isolated and sequenced in an Illumina NovaSeq 6000. Nuclei from the same samples were isolated by dounce homogenization, libraries generated with 10× Genomics, and sequenced in an Illumina NovaSeq 6000, followed by analysis via Cell Ranger pipeline and Seurat in RStudio (v4.3.2) By the expression of signature marker genes, single-nuclei RNA sequencing (snRNAseq) analysis identified mature adipocytes (AD; ADIPOQ, LEP), adipose stromal and progenitor cells (ASPC; PDGFRA), endothelial cells (EC; VWF, PECAM1), smooth muscle cells (SMC; NOTCH3, MYL9) and immune cells (IMC; CD163, MRC1). We detected six cell clusters in SAT and nine in IM. Across IM and SAT, AD was the most abundant cell type, followed by ASPC, SMC, and IMC. In SAT, AD made up 50% of the cellular population, followed by ASPC (31%), EC (14%), IMC (1%), and SMC (4%). In IM depot, AD made up 23% of the cellular population, followed by ASPC at 19% of the population, EC at 28%, IMC at 7% and SMC at 12%. The abundance of ASPC and AD was lower in IM vs. SAT, while IMC was increased, suggesting a potential involvement of immune cells on IM deposition. Accordingly, both bulk RNAseq and snRNAseq analyses identified activated pathways of inflammation and metabolic function in IM. These results demonstrate distinct transcriptional cellular heterogeneity between SAT and IM depots in beef steers, which may underly the mechanisms by which fat deposits in each depot. The identification of depot-specific cell populations in IM and SAT via snRNAseq analysis has the potential to reveal target genes for the modulation of fat deposition in beef cattle. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Research and Strategies for Improving Farm Animal Meat Quality)
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17 pages, 6431 KiB  
Article
Heterogeneity of Intramuscular, Intermuscular, and Subcutaneous Fat in Laiwu Pigs: Insights from Targeted Lipidomics and Transcriptomics
by Jian Xu, Tianwen Wu, Sin Man Lam, Guanghou Shui, Shulin Yang, Yanfang Wang and Cong Tao
Agriculture 2024, 14(5), 658; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14050658 - 24 Apr 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2200
Abstract
In the livestock industry, an excessive accumulation of subcutaneous fat diminishes the proportion of lean meat, while elevated intramuscular fat (IMF) content is associated with enhanced meat quality. However, the heterogeneity of various fat depots in pigs remains incompletely understood. Comprehensive tissue section, [...] Read more.
In the livestock industry, an excessive accumulation of subcutaneous fat diminishes the proportion of lean meat, while elevated intramuscular fat (IMF) content is associated with enhanced meat quality. However, the heterogeneity of various fat depots in pigs remains incompletely understood. Comprehensive tissue section, lipidomic, and transcriptomic analyses indicated that the maturity of IMF was significantly less than that of both intermuscular and subcutaneous fats. We identified 467 lipids across 29 lipid classes in total, revealing that IMF exhibits unique lipid composition and transcriptional profiles. More importantly, several lipids, including GalCer, S1P, CL, AcCa, PC-O, PE-O, and sulfatide, are highly enriched in intramuscular fat and may play pivotal roles in neuromodulation, mitochondrial function, lipogenesis, and membrane signaling. In conclusion, we unveiled unique lipid composition and molecular regulatory pathways of porcine IMF, offering new insights for the synergistic breeding that aims at optimizing pig backfat thickness and IMF content. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Research and Strategies for Improving Farm Animal Meat Quality)
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