The Secret of Wagyu

National Livestock Breeding Center, Tottori Station

Minoru Suzuki

Wagyu

• Japan’s domestic beef breeds

• 4 wagyu breeds ;

Japanese black

Japanese red

Japanese short-horn

Japanese polled black

Wagyu Inventory in Japan

95%

1%

0%3%1%

Japanese Black

Japanese Red

Japanese Short-horn

Japanese Polled Black

Others

Cow numbers

Japanese Black 654 thousand heads

Japanese Red 23

Japanese Short-horn 5

Japanese Polled Black 0.1

Others(Angus,Crossbred) 6

Feature of Wagyu

(Japanese Black)

• Horned

• Browny black hair

• Medium in size

• Moderate growth

• High marbling(intramuscular fat)

• Beautiful,good flavour,tasty meat

• High price

Wagyu Raising in Japan

• Pure breeding (crossbreeding is rare.)

• 2 independent operations

Cow-calf operation

Fattening operation

• Cow-calf operation (many small size farms)

Calf production by artificial insemination

• Fattening operation

Long-term grain feeding

Age : 0 month 8～10months 28～30months

(calving) (saleyard auction) (slautering)

Cow-calf operation Fattening operation

Artificial Insemination fattening

Bulls owned by

AI servise bodies

(287days later)(saleyard auction)

Typical Pattern of Wagyu raising

Cow-calf Operation

• Many small farmers

(73,400 farms, 8.5 cows/farm)

• Due to aging, farm number has been

decreasing by around 5% per annum

Fattening Operation of Wagyu

• Long grain feeding(19～20 months)

• Small-lot or individual management

• Bigger finishing weight

700～800KG or more liveweight(steer)

450～500KG or more carcassweight

(Cf: US 350KG, Aust. 270KG)

• Big difference from lot feeding in US/Aust.

Fundamentals of High Quality

Wagyu Beef Production

• Breeding system

Selection of high performance bulls

Broad utilization of super bulls by AI

• Fattening technique

Sophisticated management

Consistent research and development

Selection and Utilization of

Wagyu AI Bulls• Prefectural governments (i.e. traditional wagyu

production areas) play an important role

• But utilization of bulls is regionally limited

(Basically, those bulls can be used in the prefecture)

• National Livestock Breeding Center (ＮＬＢＣ) and

Livestock Improvement Association of Japan (ＬＩＡＪ)

closely work for production and selection of AI bulls

which cover all over japan

Direct performance test

Good young bulls Selection of

High

performance

bulls

Super bull

Elite cow

Breeding stocks

Good male calves

(growth, pedigree etc.)

Production of progenies

for fattening

(performance test)

Commercial cow herd

Full Blood,registerd

Japanese Black

High potential male calves

selection

Selection

NLBC

Flow of Wagyu Breeding

Prefectural Gov.

Top Performance

group

High potential male calves

Good young bulls

Production of progenies

for fattening

(performance test)Selection of

High

performance

bulls

Private breeders

Fattening

LIAJ

Progeny test

Selected AI bull and his 13 progenies

Recent Advances in Wagyu

Production

1. Vitamin a cotrol for better marbling

2. Research into palatability

3. Detection of wagyu specific genes for

better palatability

Vitamine A Control for Better Marbling

• VA (adequate level in blood) stimulates

growth of preadipocyte cells in the muscle

during early stage of fattening

• But at middle to finishing stage,when

activity of fat deposition is very high, VA

inhibits fat deposition of adipocytes

• For better marbling, VA control is getting

a common practice in Wagyu fattening

A Pattern of VA Control

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30

months of age

IU/dl

VA level in blood

80IU/dl ～normal

30～80IU/dl

potencial VA

deficiency

Less than

30IU/dl

VA deficiency

loss of appetite

edema

blindness

Keep VA level

under 50IU

for 6～8months

Research Into Palatability

• Consumers’ unquenchable desire for tasty

wagyu beef pushes researches into

palatability of beef

• Marbling is the key factor for palatability

• However, quality of fat (like fatty acid

composition) is also considered to be an

important factor affecting palatability

• For fatty acid composition, high level of unsaturated

acids, particularly oleic acid, is one of major factors

affecting palatability

• High level of

intramuscular fat

provides

better palatability

• Intramuscular fat

is an important

factor in

determinig overall

acceptabitity

6.00

Low fat content group

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

Juiciness Tenderness Flavor Overallacceptability

Pan

el a

ssess

men

t

a

b

a

b

. Sensory characteristics of M. longissmus dorsi

Ｈigh fat content group

Low fat content group

Relationship Between BMS No. And Fat, Protein

of M.Longissimus Thoracic

n=209

Beef marbling score as graded by Japan Meat Grading Association.

y = 2.8211x + 15.594

R2 = 0.6302

y = -0.6696x + 19.375

R2 = 0.653

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

BMS.No.

Che

mic

al c

ompo

sitio

n(%)

fat

protein

Line(fat)

Line(protein)

Average marbling (BMS No.5)

of Wagyu beef

Detection of Wagyu Specific

Genes for Better Palatability

• In 2006, NLBC found a gene related to wagyu

specific palatability (fatty acid synthase=FASN

gene)

• FASN gene controls oleic acid content

• And established a DNA-based diagnostic

procedure for estimation of beef palatability by

determining the difference of FASN gene type

Efffect of FASN gene types on oleic acid content

in the Reference Family (JB x L crossbred herd)

• There are 2 types of FASN gene ;

Japanese Black(B) type and Limousin(L) type

• Those 2 types of FASN gene have a different effect on

fatty acid composition, particularly oleic acid content

41 42 43 44 45 46 47

LL

BL

BB

FASN gene type

Oleic acid content (%)

0

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Japnese Black

Holstein

Angus

Hereford

20

40

60

80

100

％

LL BL BB

Japanese BlackHolsteinAngus

Hereford

• Japanese Black shows very high FASN gene frequency

compared to other breeds

• Combined DNA test of FASN gene and SCD(stearoyl-

CoA desaturase) gene will be one of the most effective

tool for “much more tasty” Wagyu production

FASN gene frequency Frequency of gene type

L type

B type