Patent ID: 7947444

Claim:
A method for identifying a bovine animal as having a particular daily dry matter intake, body weight, slaughter weight, or carcass weight phenotype, said method comprising: (a) obtaining a biological sample from a bovine, said sample comprising nucleic acids from said bovine; (b) detecting in said nucleic acids the nucleotide content at both alleles of the UASMS1 or UASMS3 polymorphic position in the leptin gene to determine the UASMS1 or UASMS3 genotype of the bovine, wherein the UASMS1 polymorphic position is either a C or a T at position 207 of SEQ ID NO: 1 and the UASMS3 polymorphic position is either a C or a G at position 1759 of SEQ ID NO: 1; and (c) correlating the UASMS1 or UASMS3 genotype with the daily dry matter intake, body weight, slaughter weight, or carcass weight phenotype of the bovine, wherein: (i) the presence of a CC UASMS1 genotype or a CC UASMS3 genotype is indicative of lower daily dry matter intake, body weight, slaughter weight, or carcass weight phenotype; (ii) the presence of a TT UASMS1 genotype or a GG UASMS3 genotype is indicative of higher daily dry matter intake, body weight, slaughter weight, or carcass weight phenotype; and (iii) the presence of a heterozygous CT UASMS1 genotype or a CG UASMS3 genotype is indicative of a daily dry matter intake, body weight, slaughter weight, or carcass weight phenotype that is intermediate to the level of said phenotypes in animals having a CC UASMS1 genotype, a CC UASMS3 genotype, a TT UASMS1 genotype or a GG UASMS3.