Wednesday 7 October 2020

A zebuine ancestry for Chianina?

Genetic studies have helped a great deal to understand the history of domestic cattle populations in recent years. 
For example, it has been resolved that many Southern European cattle breeds have influence from North African taurine cattle [1], which is not surprising considering that there were trade routes in ancient times. North African taurine cattle are genetically distinct from other taurine cattle, which is interpreted as the result of significant introgression of African aurochs [1]. Therefore, many Iberian and some Italian breeds might have African aurochs in their ancestry. For Chianina (and related breeds such as Romagnola, Marchigiana and others) in particular, zebuine influence has been detected as well [1]. This does not surprise me that much, as I have been suspecting that the white colour of Chianina (produced by at least two different alleles, on the Agouti and Dun locus) is actually inherited from zebus. Some zebu breeds have exactly the same white colour as Chianina, for example see the Nelore breed. Also, the face of Chianina looks slightly zebuine to me, as well as the fact that it lacks curly hair on the front head (which is typical for zebuine cattle but rare in taurine cattle). 

So Chianina is influenced by zebuine cattle. This might be used as an argument against the use of Chianina in "breeding-back" by those who want to use Maremmana instead for large size. However, Podolian cattle - such as Maremmana - are significantly influenced by zebuine cattle as well [2,3]. This also shows in the phenotype: I suspect that the upright horns, large dewlap and Agouti dilution of Podolian cattle are derived from zebuine cattle. 
But I think this is neither an argument against Chianina or Maremmana. Zebuine influence is simply not all that uncommon in taurine cattle, and unavoidable for "breeding-back", as many breeds needed for certain traits, such as size, have zebuine influence. 
As an interesting side note, it has been recognized that zebus share some wildtype alleles with the British aurochs whose genome was fully sequenced, while taurine cattle have other alleles on these loci [4]. So zebus do have some alleles in common with the European aurochs. 


[1] Decker et al.: Worldwide patterns of ancestry, divergence and admixture in domestic cattle. 2014. 

[2] Papachristou et al.: Genomic diversity and population structure of the indigenous Greek and Cypriot cattle. 2020. 
[3] Upadhyay et al.: Genetic origin, admixture and population history of aurochs (Bos primigenius) and primitive European cattle. 
[4] Orlando et al.: The first aurochs genome reveals the breeding history of British and European cattle. 2015. 

13 comments:

  1. An interesting giant zebuine cattle breed
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibi_bhagnari

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    1. Interesting! Zebus like this one might have contributed to Chianina.

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    2. That zebu breed is very similar to the Chianina! There must be an interesting and deliberate story of how these Indian cattle were brought to a part of Italy that would already have had plenty of domestic cattle and the phenotype hardly changed!

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    3. maybe it is possible but this zebu contribution to Chianina is not the latest thing...huge white bulls where already living there in Tuscany thousand years ago...
      Publius Vergilius Maro (70 BC-19 BC) and Lucius Junius Columella (4 AD – 70 AD) wrote about "vastos and albos boves" (very big and white bulls) that where living near to the Clitunno river (Tuscany and Umbria regions)and where offered as a prestigious sacrifice to the Gods.

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  2. A recent study has discovered that etruscans, the ancient population of Tuscany where chianina breed is born, came from Lydia region in Turkey
    https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-06/esoh-aew061307.php

    Maybe chianina ancestor came from there... not so far from Zebu territories...

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  3. hey daniel, stichting taurus has released a new tauros population in a small reserve in the Netherlands again. most small locations have barerly any info and footage but im very happy to say this one does have info and footage. what you see here is the video of the transportation and release. i would love if you would react to it. i personnally think most are mostly sayaguesa but i also am pretty sure i see limia crosses in it and im also sure that there is tudanca influence. also think there is maronesa in there. what do you think? how do they look. i saw one bull that defenitly looks great. it had big thick horns that shaped good. not there yet but a good base. maybe a lucky maramena x sayaguesa cross or something more complex. idk what do you think?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQIIv-9wI-k&app=desktop

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    1. Thanks for the video. I agree with your speculations regarding the breed identity of those animals. I like that the cows are slender and long-legged, but I miss the sexual dimorphism and the bulls could be better as well.

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  4. Another taurus bull
    https://mobile.twitter.com/boswachterwilly/status/1070025188086026242

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    1. A Tauros bull, not a Taurus bull; Taurus bulls are larger and often more long-legged, and also a have better horn orientation. But thanks for the link.

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  5. hey do you know anything about the dutch project oerund hard? its a breeding back project that wants to breed back the aurochs. although information is scarse and there are no photos ether there is some findble on their site which they resently updated, like locations, breeds, goals etc:
    https://oerrund-hard.weebly.com/
    they want to start with one breed and later crossbreed it, similar to what uruz said they wanted to do if i'm not mistaken.
    they want to use highland cattle and people have critized highland cattle but i don't think this is such a bad choice. highland cattle already pocces most aurochs features, are extremely hardy and are extremly succesfull in conservation grazing. especially with lots of public and small areas. more aurochs like breeds like maremmana cattle are often way more agressive. and their goal is to make a public friendly aurochs (similar to the ecolander) beside all points critized about highland cattle are easily bred out, like size, body shape and hump. these are known to be the easiest to change features. the highland population from the veluwe is a good example who lived wild for a couple of decades and already start to look like red haired lidia cattle. with good humps, slender bodies and longer legs.
    https://www.google.com/search?q=veluwezoom+hooglanders&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwj74NHxgLXsAhXBgaQKHWiNDgIQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=veluwezoom+hooglanders&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzoECCMQJzoCCAA6BAgAEB46BAgAEBhQumRYqo0BYMyOAWgDcAB4AIABPogBjAaSAQIxNZgBAKABAaoBC2d3cy13aXotaW1nwAEB&sclient=img&ei=2mqHX_uLHsGDkgXomroQ&bih=597&biw=1242&rlz=1C1GCEB_enNL862NL862
    we also know this from the maremmana x highland crosses of tauros that show that highland body features can easily be bred out in one cross.
    https://www.google.com/search?q=tauros+geuzenbos&rlz=1C1GCEB_enNL862NL862&sxsrf=ALeKk01VyzWNn8Fm-u2nMe6WSTBTRsN_ZA:1602710386711&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj55Ju6gbXsAhVyMOwKHRw1AkkQ_AUoAXoECAQQAw&biw=1242&bih=597#imgrc=6mGwAQsl01ODFM
    this makes it pretty easy to turn highland cattle in a good basis breed for a good project, especially since other traits like good horn shape are common in this breed and there for easy to breed. although the thick fur is a upside of this breed its also a downside but also a downside but also this feature is easily breedable look at highland cattle of veluwezoom who in 30 years developed god horn shape and short fur.
    https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fzoom.nl%2Ffoto%2Fdieren%2Fred-bull.3208070.html&psig=AOvVaw3FRyFF83fReFLYuYbyKHAg&ust=1602796654099000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCKC_oJmBtewCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAd

    https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fbzd1%2F14469870708%2F&psig=AOvVaw3FRyFF83fReFLYuYbyKHAg&ust=1602796654099000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCKC_oJmBtewCFQAAAAAdAAAAABBB

    so the many aurochs characteristics, indepence, public friendliness and easily bred out downside make this breed a good basic. but beside the public friendliness there are many good to better alternatives you may ask. but the friendly behavior is very needed, beside non of the other breeds are as numerous and easy as the highlander. this makes the highlander so easy to start a herd with. i personally think a big herd of tauros like highland cattle has good potential for crossbreeding. i know they want to crossbreed them with watussi and heck cattle if im not mistaken. of course heck cattle ads wild color and watussi at horn size. body size is going to be tough but thats why the highland cattle will be bred first so they will be bigger to start with. maybe some chianina to top it of with would make it better. what do you think?

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    1. the thing what i try to say, highland might not seem as the best but its very easy and has a lot of potential in the breed its self already, you only need to get it out of there. thats why breeding first with only highland seems a good idea for me. only wild colors and dichromatism are not possible. which is available in hecks

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    2. the project is actually from henri Kerdijk van otten. idk if he is still doing it. just like uruz it's so hard to get info

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    3. here you can find photos of the project

      https://www.facebook.com/bokitoworks/

      https://twitter.com/bokitoworks/status/800719677756416001?lang=fi

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