Bovine male castration increases the levels of serum branched chain amino acids via small intestinal amino acid metabolism.

Castration of male cattle is common practice in beef production systems worldwide. The main purposes of male castration are primarily pregnancy prevention as well as easy handling by reducing sexual and aggressive behaviors. Castration of bulls is also advantageous to increasing meat quality. For instance, feeding high concentrate diets to male castrated cow resulted in more increased levels of subcutaneous and intramuscular fat, and tenderness score than those of non-castrated bulls. Because beef cattle, especially the feedlot steers, are typically fed the high concentrate diet, microbial features in the lower intestinal tract of these animals and its association with host metabolic phenotypes remain to be spotlighted.