Hornlessness is an economically beneficial feature used to improve animal welfare and safety. Horns pose a threat to both humans raising cattle and other animals. In order to reduce the risk of negative impact of this hereditary trait, methods of permanently removing horns have been developed. Physical removal of the creations involved additional costs and time, and in the main, subjected the animal to suffering and compromised welfare. The alternative to non-invasive and long-term removal of horns became the breeding of genetically hornless individuals.
The gene responsible for the occurrence of horns has been located in a region of bovine chromosome 1 (BTA1). Depending on the mutation, different DNA sequence variants in this gene are distinguished, occurring in breeds of different origins: Celtic (PC), Friesian (PF), Mongolian (PM), Guarani (PG). In detail, these are the races: Angus, Charolais, Galloway, Holstein-Friesian, Limousin, Pinzgau, Hereford, Shorthorn, Simmental, Brahman, Nelore.
Polledness is inherited in a dominant manner. This means that all animals with at least one copy of the hornlessness allele in their genotype will be hornless individuals. In order to obtain horned offspring, such an individual must inherit two alleles encoding the horned trait. Genetically conditioned hornlessness does not affect fertility and utility traits of individuals therefore it is a desirable genetic trait.
| Result | Interpretation |
| POS | POLLED |
| POC | POLLED CARRIER |
| POF | HORNED |
REFERENCES #
- Aldersey J. E., Sonstegard T.S., Williams J. L. & Bottema C. D. K. (2020). Understanding the effects of the bovine POLLED variants. Anim Genet 51(2), 166-176.
- Simon R., Drögemüller C. & Lühken G. (2022). The Complex and Diverse Genetic Architecture of the Absence of Horns (Polledness) in Domestic Ruminants, including Goats and Sheep. Genes (Basel) 6;13(5):832.