What rearing factors influence marbling in beef?

In the last 40 years, the French bovine meat value chain improved bovine carcass performances, reducing the amount of adipose tissue and therefore marbling of meat. The importance of fat infiltration in meat for organoleptic quality has been once again recently proved. Thus, marbling is a research axis of INTERBEV (the French bovine meat interbranch organisation) in order to improve meat quality for consumers. Nevertheless, rearing factors impacting marbling level in meat have been poorly studied in France. The objective of this review is to identify breeding factors linked to animal or feeding which could enhance marbling level of bovine meat.