Sexing of beef - a survey of possible methods

The beef trade, amounting to several billion Euro per year, is of great imp ortance in the European Union. Several measures have been introduced to sup port beef producers, such as intervention buying. However, these payments a re only effected for male beef, which represents a temptation for fraud. Co nsequently, reliable methods for sexing of beef are required. This report s ummarises existing methods in EU countries as well as possible alternatives deduced from the literature. Individual methods are discussed for their ad vantages and disadvantages as well as their general applicability. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.