Bull semen
Well, there’s an interesting title for a blog posting.
The BBC World Service had a fantastic edition of its ‘One World‘ programme last Wednesday evening, focussing on the domination of the world by… the Friesian Holstein cow. The argument raised was fairly simple. The Friesian - the black-and-white cow that schoolchildren would probably draw - is, by virtue of its superior milk-producing qualities, becoming the dairy cow of choice not just in the Western European pastureland where it was selectively bred, but across world, including in the more extreme conditions of Africa and Arabia. Evidently, these cattle are being used as milk machines - literally - in tight pens, fed an energy-rich diet to produce as much milk as possible.
While the Friesian does produce a lot of milk, it requires relatively benign conditions (or, as mentioned above, a factory) to survive. There are cows that provide less milk, but don’t need a huge infrastructure to support them.
Equally, some breeds that are dying out have better immunity (both naturally and because of an effective population bottleneck because of choosing the best sires in terms of milk production) to some common diseases of cattle. This does make sense; the siring bottleneck means that evolution is effectively halted for cattle while pathogens continue to mutate and evolve, with the possibility of the eventual rise of a particularly virulent strain that is unchecked by variations in the global herd or the probability of increased dependence on prophylactic use of antibiotics.
While I do not generally like using Star Trek for political points, I think people should watch Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home to be aware of the risks of enraging UFOs by reducing genetic diversity.
I do wonder, given that the market seems to be favouring what might be termed short-term or immediate goals (by which I mean short-run in terms of events rather than timescale) over long-term viability, where else biological security might be compromised or chances to improve breeds (including by ‘tailoring’ them to local conditions) are being lost for the cause of a quick buck.
Given the propensity of some quarters to accuse nigh-on all the current affairs work of the BBC of rampant liberal bias, I want to make it clear that the BBC merely reported on the Holstein cow’s dominance, and did not read anything into it.
xD.
