There is a kind of cow, with a strong body and full of tendon meat. Just looking at the picture, you may think that it is a PS synthesis, but it is a real and sought after beef cattle, it is the Belgian Blue Bull.
Belgian Blue Bull
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" > the origin of the Belgian Blue Bull is full of accidents</h1>
In the 19th century, a Belgian farmer wanted to observe the growth of the English shorthorn cattle and the French Charolais cattle, so he put the two cattle together. Who knows a momentary negligence, the two kinds of cattle look at each other, and after mating, they breed offspring.
British shorthorn cattle have good precociousness, outstanding meat performance, fast weight gain, more meat, tender meat, and can also produce milk; French Charolais cattle are famous large beef cattle breeds, fast growth, meat volume, large body, wide back thick meat, full muscle, back hip muscular development. The Belgian blue cow, produced by the hybridization of the two cattle, inherits most of the characteristics of the French Charolais cattle, and it is able to grow more muscle because its genes mutate after hybridization.
Charolais cattle
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" >Why can belgian blue bulls grow so much muscle? </h1>
The researchers found that the Belgian Blue Bull was inherently short of something called muscle growth inhibitor (MSTN). This is a transformative growth factor that negatively regulates muscle growth and development, and genetic mutations and loss of function in MSTN can cause hypertrophy of skeletal muscle, leading to overdevelopment of skeletal muscle.
To put it simply, normal mammals have muscle growth inhibitors that inhibit the continued enlargement of skeletal muscle when it grows to a certain extent, but the Belgian Blue Bull does not have this kind of thing in the body, so their skeletal muscle will develop so terrible.
Therefore, after the Belgian Blue Bull consumes food, most of the energy will supply muscle growth, so that they can gain nearly 3 pounds in a single day, almost all muscle.
After the advent of the Belgian Blue Cow, many breeders were immediately alarmed, and they originally wanted to make the new breed both beef cattle and dairy cows, but its "excellent" meat production ability, delicate meat quality, high protein content, low cholesterol, low thermal energy and other characteristics made them dispel this idea. It is intended to fix the genetics of the blue cow variant and continue to produce meat, which is completely bred as a beef cattle.
Belgian Blue Bulls are not genetically stable in their offspring, so not every calf lacks muscle growth suppressorin. By intervening in their natural responses, the quality of the offspring is consolidated by means of directed breeding. Belgian blue cows with stable quality can now weigh 700 to 800 kg, and bulls can weigh 1000 to 1200 kg. At present, the Belgian Blue Bull has been distributed to more than 20 countries around the world.
So strictly speaking, Belgian beef cattle are not genetically modified products, but the products of targeted breeding.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" > fatal flaw of the Belgian Blue Bull</h1>
There are two sides to everything, and the Belgian Blue Bull's robust hip muscles also affect the normal development of the bull's sexual organs. The growth space of the sexual organs is compressed, the weight of the testicles is reduced, and with it, the quantity and quality of semen are reduced, resulting in a low fertility rate for the Belgian Blue Bull. Not only the bull, but also the cow was affected, the size of the cow was not as large as the bull, and the muscle was not exaggerated by the bull, but the birth canal was also squeezed very narrowly by the muscle. In addition, the Belgian Blue Bull calf grows a lot of muscle in the womb, twice as much as the average calf, and twice the weight of the average calf. So Belgian blue cattle are very prone to difficult births, with a difficult birth rate of up to 95%, almost every cow faces a difficult birth, and 99% of cows need to undergo a caesarean section during childbirth.
Left: Bull Right: Cow
Not only that, but the survival rate of the Belgian blue bull calf is also very low, and there will be heart and lung diseases. Because the muscles develop too quickly, the calves' bone joints are compressed. Just like human children, if they start practicing muscles from an early age, affecting bone growth, they will not grow tall.
There have also been cases of genetic mutations like the Belgian Blue Bull in humans. In 2000, a German boy was born different, his muscles on the outside of his thighs, front and back of his calves were significantly bulging, not as soft as other children. After a B ultrasound examination, the doctor determined that it was muscle tissue. He has twice the muscle mass of the average child, but only half the fat. The boy's doctor felt it was also related to his lack of muscle growth inhibitors. Due to the rapid muscle growth, his height is not very high, but he is very healthy.
Left: Just born Right: Seven months of birth
Poorly, the Belgian Blue Bull had grown up and could only be sent to the slaughterhouse and table to end its miserable life. It has to be said that human beings at the top of the food chain really do everything in order to achieve economic benefits. Without manual intervention in the growth and breeding of the Belgian Blue Bull, it may be gradually eliminated by nature due to the above defects, but for the sake of the human "stomach", they have to endure these pains.
Coincidentally, in addition to the "devil tendon beef cow" of the Belgian blue bull, there is also the "devil tendon meat pig"
Kim Jin-so , a molecular biologist at Seoul National University in South Korea , and his colleagues used targeted gene knockout techniques to remove muscle growth genes from pigs, and then implanted these modified genes into the sow's embryonic cells, giving birth to 32 genetically modified piglets. Like the Belgian Blue Bull, these piglets lacked muscle inhibitors, grew unrestricted, and eventually became robust muscle pigs. But like the Belgian Blue Bull, the survival rate of genetically modified muscle pigs is also relatively low, with only 13 of the 32 piglets surviving, and only 2 remaining, only 1 is relatively healthy. Artificial genetically modified animals cannot be eaten, but Professor Jin believes that instead of adding other genes to the muscle pigs, the existing genes have been removed and should be relatively safe. If it were you, would you dare to eat this pork?
Muscle pigs
The lack of muscle growth inhibitin is bad news for animals, but it is a blessing for human muscular dystrophy patients. Muscular dystrophy occurs mainly in people with genetic disorders and in the elderly, and there is no effective treatment.
Children with congenital muscular dystrophy
Researchers have found that as long as the muscle growth inhibitin is reduced to 20% to 50% to achieve targeted control, the muscles can be restored to growth, reaching healthy and even strong levels. However, the current research is still in the theoretical stage, and it will take some time to really develop this drug.