Foreign meat identification by DNA breed assignment for the Chinese market

ROGBERG MUÑOZ, A; WEI, S; RIPOLI, MV; GUO, BL; CARINO, MH; VILLEGAS CASTAGNASSO, EE; LIRÓN, JP; MORALES DURAND, HF; MELUCCI, LM; VILLARREAL, EL; PERAL GARCIA, P; WEI, Y; GIOVAMBATTISTA, G

MEAT SCIENCE

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2014 vol. 98 p. 822 - 827

0309-1740

Individual identification is mainly used for food safety, while breed determination is useful in commercial fraud. In the context of Chinese imports there is a need to trace meat origin. Chinese Yellow cattle (CYC) samples, representing North and Central Agricultural regions, six Bos taurus, two Bos indicus and one composite breeds were used. 22 microsatellites were selected to evaluate if samples from those breeds could be recognized from CYC. Breed assignment reveals that all foreign breeds could be discriminated from CYC but some CYC were wrongly allocated as Limousin or Holstein, probably due to recent introduction to China. CYC samples evidence the previously reported Bos indicus cline (south-north), while a possible second structure within Bos taurus component was detected that should be confirmed with a higher amount of samples. An allocation test performed with unknown breed Argentinean samples, result in a 92% belonging to Angus, Hereford or its crossbreeds, and none was identified as CYC. This method is satisfactory to certify foreign breed meat and detect adulterations of CYC beef labeled as imported meat.