White-blue Belgians
The Belgian cattle breed White and Blue Belgians (WBB) is primarily characterized by a strong body of muscles.
features
From this breed there is the heavy, so-called meat type and a suckler cow type (milk and meat); this is necessary because the dams of the pure meat breed do not produce enough milk for their own calves. The animals are colored white, black and white or blue and white. White-blue Belgians have a natural mutation in the gene that codes for the muscle growth inhibitor protein myostatin . The mutilated myostatin is unable to control muscle growth. Furthermore, this mutation also hinders fat accumulation, which leads to extremely lean meat. Its shaped, heavily muscled appearance is referred to as "double lender" - a characteristic that Piedmontese cattle also have. In most cases the cows are unable to give birth naturally and will need a caesarean section . In some countries, keeping this breed is prohibited. White-blue Belgians are successfully used as a father breed in crossbreeding in many European countries. In 2008, more than a third of all inseminations with beef cattle semen in Germany were from the WBB breed. The calving problems of the breed in their breeding area do not occur when crossing with other cattle breeds, provided that this breed does not also have the double tender.
Origin and Distribution
White-blue Belgians are a long-established native landrace. Shorthorn cattle were crossbred at the end of the 19th century . Since 1950, part of the population has been breeding for muscle abundance. They are mainly native to Belgium with a number of around 1.5 million animals.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ L. Grobet et al .: A deletion in the bovine myostatin gene causes the double-muscled phenotype in cattle. In: Nature Genetics . 1997 Sep; 17 (1): 71-4. PMID 9288100
- ^ Belgian herdbook of the white-blue Belgians
