Bioelectrical impedance analysis for estimating marbling score of live beef cattle in Japan

To establish an estimation method of beef marbling score for beef production management, we have investigated correlations among bioelectrical impedance properties in the sirloin part, the content of crude fat in the ribulose part, and the beef marbling standard (BMS) number. The measurement was conducted with 28 Japanese Black Beef Cattle before one-month slaughter treatment. We adopted the four-electrode method robustly to measure the bioelectrical impedance properties. The needle electrodes inserted into the four points: 100, 125, 225, 250[mm] in a line from the last lumbar vertebra. The extracellular resistance R
_ex
, the intracellular resistance R
_in
, and the cellular membrane capacitance C
_m
calculated using the measured data. As the result, the correlations observed between R
_in
, the BMS number (r = 0.61,RSME = ±20.6, P <; 0.01) and between Rin, the content of crude fat (r = 0.71,RSME = ±19.32, P <; 0.01). The results revealed that the bioelectrical impedance analysis has potential impact to estimate the BMS number, which would be helpful for beef production management industries.