Sexing of beef — a survey of possible methods

The beef trade, amounting to several billion Euro per year, is of great importance in the European Union. Several measures have been introduced to support beef producers, such as intervention buying. However, these payments are only effected for male beef, which represents a temptation for fraud. Consequently, reliable methods for sexing of beef are required. This report summarises existing methods in EU countries as well as possible alternatives deduced from the literature. Individual methods are discussed for their advantages and disadvantages as well as their general applicability.