ABSTRACT
A tremendous amount of variation in muscle and meat characteristics exists among and within breeds and species. Conventional science to improve muscle and meat parameters has involved breeding strategies, such as selection of dominant traits or selection of preferred traits by crossbreeding, and the use of endogenous and exogenous growth hormones. Improvements in the quality of food products that enter the market have largely been the result of postharvest intervention strategies. Biotechnology is a more extreme scientific method that offers the potential to improve the quality, yield, and safety of animal products by direct genetic manipulation of livestock. In essence, biotechnology is a new approach to the methods of genetic selection, crossbreeding, or administration of growth hormones in its final result. However, progress in this area is very slow and has a long way to go before having an impact at a commercial usage level.
