Sunday, December 8, 2019

think before you drink...milk



Penn State researchers traced more than 99% of these dairy cows back to one bull, born in the 1960s.  This genetic homogeneity increases the risk of inherited disorders.  Researchers bred a small batch of new cows using the preserved semen of deceased bulls and compared them to modern-bred dairy cows with the hopes to address any traits that have been lost due to prolonged inbreeding.


3 comments:

  1. I cannot believe how inbred these cows are! This is very concerning, because as the article says it can have very negative impacts on the breed. I would also think it might have some sort of impact on the healthiness of the milk these cows are producing, and that is something I think they should check on.

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  2. This is very interesting, I wonder if this would affect the quality of the milk we are drinking. Either way this is not good and will hopefully be fixed.

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  3. I never would have guessed that these cows were so inbred! I wonder what kind of effect the inherited disorders could have on the nutrition contained in the milk - it could potentially have negative effects on the calves when they are young and relying on the milk to grow!

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