When you think of Belgium, you may think of chocolate, beer, and oil paintings, but in the cattle industry, this small country has bred the world's most "strong" cattle breed - the Belgian blue cattle.
This beef is boneless and muscular, and it becomes a "muscle monster" if you are not careful.
Where does the wild muscles of the Belgian Blue Bull come from? What does its appearance raise about human consumption and animal welfare? Let's unravel the scientific and ethical mysteries of this "muscle".
The Belgian Blue Bull is indeed extraordinary, with a burly and muscular body and the power of "savage growth".
In one by one, their shoulders, back, waist, hips, and thighs are all bulging with exaggerated muscle blocks and furrows, which is simply the cow version of "squat lovers".
Even when standing with beef cattle of similar size, the Belgian Blue Cattle can easily dominate the visual focus, as if Iron Man's cow version of cosplay.
In fact, adult bulls can weigh up to 1,200 kilograms, and cows also weigh 725 kilograms, which is 15 times more.
What's even more scary is that the Belgian Blue Bull can gain 14 kilograms, all the gain is muscle, not fat.
Keep in mind that even bodybuilders who use banned drugs gain only a few hundred grams a day.
It can be said that among cattle, the muscle mass of the Belgian blue cattle has broken through the "limit" of body size, and it is not at all the level that normal growth can achieve.
This is mainly due to two points:
First, the number of muscle cells in Belgian blue cattle is much higher than that of ordinary cattle.
There are two mechanisms of muscle mass growth: muscle cell proliferation and muscle cell enlargement.By increasing the metabolism of muscle cells, the Belgian blue cattle has greatly increased the number of muscle cells, which has played a role in "expanding the army".
Second, the size of each muscle cell in the Belgian Blue Cattle is also larger than that of ordinary cattle.
After the muscle cells** reach equilibrium, the individual muscle cells continue to absorb nutrients and grow.
The muscle cells of the Belgian Blue Cattle have a greater hypertrophic capacity, which maximizes the volume of individual muscle cells.
The combination of the two allows the Belgian Blue Bull to rapidly gain muscle mass after birth and maintain an unusually high muscle ratio into adulthood.
Some data show that the number of muscle cells is more than 30% more than that of ordinary cattle, and the volume of a single cell is also about 20% larger.
This extraordinary development gives the Belgian Blue Bull an exaggerated muscle mass and explosiveness.
The back muscles of the bull can be up to 15 cm thick and can easily drag weights of more than 1 ton; The muscles of a cow are also comparable to those of an ordinary bull.
This is an anomaly in the world of cows, where cows usually only need milk and not labor.
The incredible muscles of the Belgian Blue Bull are all thanks to a genetic mutation – or rather, a small "mistake".
This mutation caused the muscles to grow beyond what was needed for their size, and was a complete anomaly.
In the mid-19th century, a Belgian farmer wanted to see the effect of crossing two types of cattle and kept British shorthorn cattle and French Charolais cattle together.Unexpectedly, the two herds of cows became ambiguous and gave birth to calves.One of these two types of cattle produces more milk and the other grows meat quickly, and crossbreeding may be able to breed excellent breeds.
Surprisingly, the muscles of the crossbred calf far exceeded that of ordinary cattle, which made the farmer's eyes shine, which was the prototype of the later Belgian blue cattle.
In order to find out the ins and outs of this muscular monster, scientists have conducted in-depth research on the Belgian blue cattle, using methods such as molecular biology and genetics to find out the truth.
After decades of hard work, an important discovery has emerged
The Belgian Blue Bull is missing a key gene, which leads to its frightening muscle mass.This gene encodes a protein called myostatin.
Myostatin can bind to receptors on the surface of muscle cells, and then inhibit many aspects of muscle growth, playing a "brake" role.It ensures that the muscles are not overgrown beyond what is reasonable.
However, due to genetic mutations, Belgian blue cattle cannot synthesize this inhibin, just like the brakes of a car fail, and the muscles can only continue to proliferate uncontrollably, and eventually develop into abnormal "muscle monsters".
Further research found that this gene mutation was accidentally produced when the two parent cattle were crossed.
The parent cattle each lacked half of the genes associated with inhibin, and the crossbred offspring happened to be missing all the working genes, resulting in inhibin deficiency.
This fortuitous event inspired scientists to deliberately cross two missing cattle to produce offspring cattle with a directed deletion of the myostatin gene.
In this way, new breeds of cattle with muscle mass far exceed those of ordinary cattle, which greatly increases the meat value of cattle.
Therefore, scientists used the method of directional crossbreeding, deliberately selecting two types of cattle with inhibin gene defects for mating.
After many generations of optimization, a new strain of Belgian Blue Cattle with a controllable degree of muscle growth gene mutation and stable inheritance has finally been bred.
Muscle mass is the key to determining the value of beef cattle, and Belgian Blue cattle are the top choice in this regard.
It has over 70% muscle content, 18% to 20% more than the average cow, and is an excellent high-protein "lean meat"**
Comparatively speaking, Belgian blue cattle have 10% less bone mass and 30% less fat mass, which is simply an ideal meat choice for modern people who pursue high protein and low fat intake.
Take a bite of Belgian blue beef, which is both fragrant and rich in protein, cheap and nutritious, and can be said to be excellent value for money.
The Belgian Blue Bull has maintained a lean body shape throughout its life, which can be described as "never blessed".
This stems from two main things:
First, the genetic mutation of the Belgian Blue Cattle causes them to develop vigorously and absorb a large amount of protein from the feed and convert it into muscle instead of fat.
This is in stark contrast to the average beef cattle, which is more inclined to lipogenesis.
Second, Belgian blue cattle have a faster metabolism and burn calories more efficiently.
A large amount of fat has been oxidized and broken down before it can be formed, providing the energy needs of the body's activities.
It can be seen that the strong muscles not only improve the meat value of the Belgian blue cattle, but also help it maintain a high-protein and low-fat body shape, which is in line with the development direction of modern food demand.
As a result, the Belgian Blue Cattle quickly went abroad and became the star beef cattle in more than 20 countries around the world.
Its delicate meat quality and economical breeding efficiency are undoubtedly a revolutionary force in the beef market, even in terms of meat volume, one Belgian blue cattle is worth two or three ordinary beef cattle.
It seems that scientists can really create super-strong "economic animals" by controlling genes.
But everything has a price, and while enjoying the delicious low price, should we also reflect on the disadvantages behind the "overloading" of cattle?
As everyone knows, the gene loss brings not only strange muscles to the Belgian Blue Bull, but also a painful fate.
The bull's ** and ** degenerate due to muscular development; The birth canal of the cow is also blocked by the muscle, making the dystocia rate as high as 95%.
This directly leads to the high number of caesarean sections, and every cow wants to give birth, and has to endure the great pain of surgery.
Newborn calves are also not having a good time, their bones and organs are squeezed by muscles, and they often have congenital diseases of the heart and lungs.
Many calves are sick when they land, and most do not live for more than a month.
As you can imagine, the Belgian Blue Cow is a difficult process of fighting the disease from birth, and even if it survives, it has to spend a short life in pain.
Beneath their strong exterior, there is a fragile organism.
We can't afford to ignore animal welfare in order to satisfy our appetites.
Genetic technology needs to be treated with caution, and life cannot be manipulated solely by market interests, otherwise it will inevitably get out of control and degenerate.
The case of the Belgian Blue Bull reminds us that biotechnology must be built on respect for life.
If human beings take the control and use of nature as their own responsibility, it will not only damage the ecology, but also violate the natural principle of symbiosis of life.
We need to examine the significance of human technological development, whether it blindly pursues efficiency and output, and ignores the true nature of life.
On the road of gene editing, we need to be more cautious and rational, measure the impact of scientific and technological progress on man and nature, and maintain a sense of awe of unknown risks within the limitations of existing knowledge.
Only by putting life above technology can the spirit of science truly benefit humanity and not just satisfy momentary greed and curiosity.
The Belgian Blue Cow has brought us a lot of inspiration, and its shocking muscle mass actually provides clues for ** muscular dystrophy.
If the mechanism of action of inhibin can be used flexibly, it may be possible to help patients return to normal muscle mass.
The mysteries of life still need to be explored, but the starting point of exploration must be respect for life, not just to satisfy human desires.
Only when science and technology return to the source of life can we face all kinds of ethical problems objectively and rationally, so that science and technology can truly benefit mankind.