Variation of carnitine concentrations in beef

The objective of this study was to quantify the naturally occurring L‐carnitine, acylated carntine, and total carnitine in Angus beef. Our ultimate goal is to optimize the genotype of an animal to select beef cattle with high carnitine concentration. Discovery samples were collected from 1,056 purebred Angus bulls, steers, and heifers beef from different parts of the US. These samples were used to quantify forms of carnitine in beef. Additionally, about 1,000 validation samples were collected to validate discovery data. The spectrophotometric and enzymatic quantification was used to determine the concentration of different forms of carnitine. Concentration of L‐carnitine (3.4 ± 0.032 μmol/g) was approximately 4‐fold of that of acylated carnitine (0.87 ± 0.005 μmol/g). Also, L‐carnitine ranges from 1.56 to 3.63 μmol/g, acylated carnitine ranges from 0.60 to 0.90 μmol/g, and total carnitine ranges from 2.1 to 4.5 μmol/g. In summary, beef from some cattle contains two times more total carnitine than from other cattle and thus we are interested in further investigating genetic or managerial controls of carnitine to produce beef high in carnitine for carnitine‐conscious consumers. Funding source. PFIZER Animal Genetics Company