[Genetic parameter estimation for inosine-5-monophosphate and intramuscular fat contents and other meat quality traits in chicken muscle].

The genetic parameters for some important flavor traits like inosine-5'-monophosphate (IMP) and intramuscular fat (IMF) contents in breast meat were estimated using a MTDFREML procedure on 1063 male, 90-day-old, purebred Beijing-You meat-type chicks (BJY). The result showed that the heritability of IMP and IMF contents in BJY breast meat was moderate or low (h2=0.23, 0.10), whereas these parameters were higher for abdominal fat weight (AFW), breast meat yield (BMY), ratio of BMY to carcass weight (BMR), leg muscle yield (LMY), body weight (BW), comb weight(CW) and comb weight percentage (CWB) (h2=0.56-0.79). The heritability of abdominal fat percentage (AFP), leg meat yield (LMY), testicle weight (TW) and testicle weight percentage (TWP) were 0.24, 0.32, 0.39 and 0.35, respectively. IMP exhibited low phenotypic correlations with BMY, LMY and SFT and no significant phenotypic correlations with other traits. IMF, to some extent, exhibited positive phenotypic correlation with BW, AFP, SFT and FSW (rP=0.11-0.33). In terms of genetic correlation, IMP was moderately or significantly negatively correlated with BW and CWP (rA=-0.38,-0.62), and a high level of positive correlation was observed with BMY (rA=0.57). Moreover, IMF was highly correlated with BW and AFW (rA=0.75,0.66), and moderately correlated with AFP and CWP (rA=0.32, 0.40). A low level of positive correlation was observed between IMP and IMF (rA =0.27). We propose that IMP and IMF contents in chicken meat could be increased with selection through line-breeding.