M
Glossary
Maintenance
energy requirement
The
amount of feed energy required per day by an animal to maintain its body weight
and support necessary metabolic functions.
Management
group
Group
of animals managed together.
Marbling
The
specks of fat (intramuscular fat) distributed in muscular tissue. Marbling is
usually evaluated in the rib eye between the 12th and 13th rib.
Marker
Assisted Selection (MAS)
The
use of genetic markers to select for specific alleles at linked QTLs and
therefore specific traits.
Mating
ability
Physical
ability of a male to complete a service.
Maturity
An
estimation of the physiological age of the animal or carcass.
Mean
The
average value of a set of numbers.
Measured
traits
The
trait recorded on the animal.
Meat
quality
Refers
to palatability, appearance, nutritional value and food safety.
Meat
yield
The
percentage of lean meat in the beef carcass as obtained by
dissection.
Metabolic
body size
The
weight of the animal raised to the 3/4 power (W0.75); a value indicative of the
feed required to meet metabolic needs and maintain current body
weight.
Metritis
Inflammation
of the womb.
Microsatellites
A
region of the genome where the same sequence of base pairs is repeated several
times, end to end.
Mitosis
The
process in cell division by which the nucleus divides, typically in four stages
(prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase) resulting in two new nuclei, each
of which has exactly the same chromosome and DNA content as the original
cell.
Multiple
Ovulation and Egg Transfer (MOET)
A
series of reproductive techniques including superovulation of a donor female,
mating, recovery of the resulting embryos, and transfer of fresh or frozen
embryos to recipient females.
Muscle Depth The ultrasonic measurement of eye muscle depth.