A breed orginazation & memebership handling a new Defect

[legendrockranch]

Thought some of you might find this interesting, some could care less. It's in reference to how a breed organization is handling a new genetic defect.
I have been a member of Advantage Cattle Forum for many years, mostly to learn. Rarely post but have spoken with several of the people via phone.
This forum is made up mostly of Angus folks, but there are several other people who raise other breeds of cattle.
It was through this forum in which I gave Hans a name of a vet in Michigan that works with genetic defects, in hope that he could solve the problem he was having.

The posters on the forum are extremely knowledgeable, there are quite a few professional research vets & attorneys. Mostly professional cattle breeders.
They have been discussing the new genetic defect that was recently discovered in the Angus breed. The thread is know 33 pages long, so if any of you have some spare time it might be worth you time to read it.

www.advantagecattle.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8340

Barb

[Gorignak]

REAL TREAT, Tex.....gonna have to tie myself in the saddle to ride through that cactus patch .....3 pages in and the nightmare unfolds in gruesome detail.
It would seem that Dexters are so economically marginal that the interest and funding to confirm or refute suspicions will be impossible to come by. Then, couple that with a recalcitrant and refractory attitude on the part of "management" and, seemingly, many members??...??

So.....it looks like start with a broad genetic base.....lock it down....and close your herd. The devil take the rest. Tiny gains in conformation from outside genetics are not worth the risk of TOTAL annihilation.

Thanks, Barb....

[legendrockranch]

Mike, you are correct on many fronts. The Angus breed is far advanced in how they work, basically because of their shear numbers compared to our small Dexter breed. We are still growing, however it is my opinion our associations have to step up the pace and do the right thing with our breed.
It is a VERY slow process, one that others and I keep trying to do. Sometimes we fail but we keep trying, such was the case with full parentage verification. What a shame that failed. I'm sure it will be a REAL EYE OPENER to some if it ever passes.

Barb

[carragheendexters]

Hi Barb and Mike,
yet another disaster for Angus. This is what happens when popular sires are used extensively like in the Angus world and you linebreed/inbreed. It happens in Holsteins too, they overuse individual sires and then the proverbial SxxxT hits the fan when that animal comes up positive for something.

The problem with the Angus is there is so much money involved, this is people's livelihood that is being affected. At least with Dexters, as much as a new genetic defect would be disastrous for us all, and money would be involved, most of us have off farm incomes, we don't rely totally on the animals we produce to be able to put food on our table.

Mike closed herd systems are good, as long as you have good genetics to start, but what if your initial animals have a genetic defect, eg PHA in earlier years when there wasn't a test. It wouldn't be long before you started producing homozygous calves. It took 23 years from the first calves to be registered to Trillium Chabotte till a homozygous affected calf was produced. One of these first calves was from a father/daughter mating, and all first 3 calves were from the same family but from different studs in different areas.

Many years ago I went to a seminar with a well known English geneticist, who was involved with dogs. Yes, it was all about dogs but breeding is breeding regardless of species. His recommendation was to not linebreed or inbreed, but to find an honest and ethical breeder who bred animals of similar type to your own, and breed like to like. This minimised the chance of producing undesirable genetic issues. His recommendation of managing low incident defects, such as PHA in our cattle was to never breed with a carrier. By eliminating carriers from breeding it would not affect the general gene pool of the breed. However with a high incidence genetic defect, (dare I say chondro, and yes, I myself have chondro carriers) it isn't advisable to eliminate all carriers as it would have too large an impact on the general gene pool, and if you were wanting to eliminate the gene, to breed carrier to unaffected, and keep any unaffected animals to continue with.

Do you know that the Angus Society here in Aust uses SNP's for their testing at Uni of Qld, they can test multiple things on the one run. It is so cheap as well, off the top of my head I think that DNA and PV is something like $19.
regards Louise