Effects of immunocastration on the performance and meat quality traits of feedlot-finished Bos indicus (Nellore) cattle

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of immunocastration on the performance, testosterone concentration, carcass traits and meat quality of feedlot-finished Nellore cattle. Fifty-eight males (430 ± 36 kg bodyweight; 24 months old) were separated into three groups in a randomised complete design: surgically castration (n = 15), immunocastrated (anti-gonadotropin-releasing hormone (Bopriva®) vaccine, n = 21) and non-castrated (n = 22). The animals were housed in individual pens and fed ad libitum for 90 days with a common diet comprising 70% concentrate and 30% roughage (corn silage). The non-castrated animals had a greater average daily gain, feed efficiency, hot carcass weight and carcass yield than the surgically castrated and immunocastrated animals (P < 0.05). Surgically castrated cattle grew faster and more efficiently than those castrated immunologically (P < 0.05). The surgically castrated and immunocastrated animals had higher colour values L*, a* and b* and cooking loss than non-castrated animals (P < 0.05). In conclusion, immunocastration decreased cattle performance compared with surgically castrated or non-castrated animals. However, immunocastration resulted in better meat quality compared with non-castrated, making it an alternative to surgical castration with no negative effects on animal welfare.

Effects of combining immunocastration and β-adrenergic agonists on the blood metabolites and their correlations with performance and carcass traits of finished Nellore cattle

“…Immunocastration has been also related to the lower muscle mass deposition (Dunshea et al, 2005;Walker et al, 2010;Amatayakul-Chantler et al, 2013;Gómez et al, 2017). The results observed in this study are in a good agreement with this statement, since immunocastrated animals presented a lower serum creatinine and CK concentration than non-castrated animals.…”

“…Several researchers have reported that immunocastration increased fat deposition in the carcass of beef cattle (Dunshea et al, 2005;Amatayakul-Chantler et al, 2012Gómez et al, 2017). These results were also observed in this study, in which immunocastrated animals had greater serum HDL and triglycerides concentrations than non-castrated animals.…”

“…Thus, due to increased public concern regarding animal welfare, some technologies, such as anti-gonadotropin-releasing factor vaccines, have been used as an animal-friendly alternative to surgical castration (Dunshea et al, 2005;Amatayakul-Chantler et al, 2012. Despite the benefits of castration on docility (Katz, 2007) and meat quality (Miguel et al, 2014;Gómez et al, 2017), bulls are more efficient in gaining muscle mass than steers, which is attributable to the effects of testosterone.…”

“…Many studies have been conducted to evaluate the effects of immunocastration (Amatayakul-Chantler et al, 2012Gómez et al, 2017;Miguel et al, 2014) and β-AA supplementation (Avendaño-Reyes et al, 2006;Arp et al, 2014;Cônsolo et al, 2015) in beef cattle. However, there is a lack of knowledge about how the combination of immunocastration and β-AA supplementation affects animal performance.…”

Reproductive and Behavioral Evaluation of a New Immunocastration Dog Vaccine

“…Immunocastration creates specific antibodies that recognize and bond to the hormone GnRH-I, preventing bonding with pituitary receptors, thus inhibiting FSH and LH secretion, causing infertility [10,12]. Thus, immunocastration has proven inhibition of reproductive activity in pigs [13][14][15], cattle [16,17], horses [18], sheep [19], mice [20][21][22][23], camelids [24], cats [25], chickens [26], and dogs [9,27,28]. Bansal and collaborators (2019) have recently developed and proven that immunogenicity of a vaccine able to develop immunity against GnRH and rabies virus simultaneously in mice [29].…”