Phenotyping of animal product quality: challenges and innovations

Abstract

In order to be able to control the quality of animal products, it is necessary to have reliable, easy to use and if possible early and non-invasive measurements. Research and development programs implemented in the various livestock sectors (ruminants, pigs, poultry, fish) concern i) the development and standardization of rapid methods both for the detection and quantification of biological or chemical contaminants, ii) the development of alternative methods to replace analytical measurements of the composition and functional properties of products through innovative technologies used in routine (optical or imaging methods, non-invasive physical methods...) and/or iii) the research of early biological markers of quality (genetic markers, gene expression or protein levels of metabolites) and their validation by the way of modeling. High-throughput phenotyping applied to a range of increasingly broad criteria of quality, is necessary for genetic or genomic selection, predictive biology and precision livestock.