Belgian Blue cattle are a heavily-bred breed, producing extraordinary amounts of meat. The sculpted, heavily muscled appearance is known as "doubled muscled", and is a trait shared by the Piedmontese breed. Critics call Belgian blues "monster cows" and some countries have advocated eliminating the strain ^[1]. They are often unable to give birth without caesarean section. Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Cattle (often called cows in vernacular and contemporary usage, or kye as the Scots plural of cou) are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ... For other uses, see Beef (disambiguation). ... A caesarean section (AE cesarean section), or c-section, is a form of childbirth in which a surgical incision is made through a mothers abdomen (laparotomy) and uterus (hysterotomy) to deliver one or more babies. ...

Belgian blue has a natural mutation of the gene that codes for myostatin, a protein that counteracts muscle growth. The truncated myostatin is unable to function in this capacity. This mutation also interferes with fat deposition, resulting in very lean meat. One human boy in Germany was born with the same mutation. The gene is referred to as "Mighty Mouse" and the boy has been called "superboy" by the press. ^[2] It has been suggested that mutant be merged into this article or section. ... Myostatin (formerly known as Growth and Differentiation Factor 8) is a growth factor that limits muscle tissue growth, i. ...

References

External links and references

• Photos of double muscled Myostatin inhibited Belgian Blue Bulls