Honing in on horns
Honing in on horns - Beef CRC - Beef Genetic Technologies
| 2 May 2008 |
 Dehorning is a time consuming exercise for producers and one which can negatively affect animal productivity and welfare. But the Beef CRC is working to change this.A project supported by the Beef CRC, Meat & Livestock Australia and CSIRO could allow cattle producers to conduct a single genetic test on their stock to tell them which animals they need to breed from to produce a polled herd. Dehorning in northern Australia is commonplace, but Dr Kishore Prayaga, CSIRO Livestock Industries, said there’s a growing need to develop a non-invasive genetic application which replaces the practice in the long-run. “The general public is more aware of animal welfare issues. It would be much better if we could identify genetically polled animals which don’t pass horns on to the next generation of calves,” Dr Prayaga said. “We’re looking at the African Horn gene and the Scur gene. These genes play a role in the development of horns in Bos Indicus cattle,” Dr Prayaga said. “If we can develop genetic markers for these genes we can then develop a DNA test which will assess whether an animal will produce calves with horns or not and what proportion will be horned or polled,” he said. Dr Prayaga’s work is also centered on “gene expression”. “We also believe there is some sort of ‘switch’ shortly after or just before birth which determines whether a calf will develop horns or not. We’ve identified 700 differentially expressed genes between horned, polled and scurred animals. We now need to further analyse the inter-linkages to determine which genes are responsible for horn growth,” he said. A genetic test could put more money in the pockets of stud breeders. “For the past four or five years buyers of polled bulls have paid a premium over horned bulls. People are looking for bulls which have a combination of good performance genetics and are polled,” said Dr Prayaga. While genetic discovery could take time, a Beef CRC PhD student is looking at the possibility of developing an interim measure which minimises the pain of dehorning. Stephanie Sinclair will look at whether it’s possible to administer a simple, effective pain relief program at the time of dehorning. Dr Carol Petherick Principal Scientist, Animal Behaviour and Welfare, from Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries said administering a drug post-operatively could off-set the costs associated with dehorning. “It’s time consuming for the producers and can be painful for the cattle but they do it because of the damage the horns can cause to other animals or people,” she said. “We know virtually nothing about how older Bos indicus cattle react to dehorning, but research done in Bos taurus animals indicates they suffer a definite setback in their growth rate,” said Dr Petherick. “Dehorning can be unproductive. You want animals to be going ahead, putting weight on. You take their horns off and that stops happening for some weeks.” The study will monitor the behavioural, physiological, wound healing and liveweight responses following dehorning and test the efficacy of different analgesic therapies. |
| For further information, contact Alison Buchanan, Communications Manager, (02) 6773 3795 or 0439 405 077 |
