Abstract
We investigated the association between gallbladder bile weight and breed, carcass weight, or slaughter age in fattened cattle steers. Data on gallbladder bile weight were obtained from normality cattle of the liver (n=524) that were shipped to a meat-processing plant in Toyama, Japan. Further, we analyzed gallbladder bile acid composition in some cattle (n=111). Based on the results, a difference was observed between breeds in terms of gallbladder bile weight (P<0.05). However, no difference was observed between gallbladder bile weight and carcass weight or slaughter age. There was no difference in bile acid composition between breeds of healthy cattle at slaughter inspection. However, the standard deviations of bile acid concentration in each breed were high. Therefore, our results indicated large variations in concentrations of various bile acids in bile from fattened steers. These results may be caused that the bile acid composition is affected at the time of shipment by the development phase feed, disease, and inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, which is considered to affect the intestinal flora. Therefore, we concluded that the differences in bile acid synthesis ability of the intestinal flora is because of individual difference in bile acid concentration.
