News

New test for Cholesterol Deficiency in Holstein cattle

13-12-2015

Recently, we gained access to the DNA-sequences relating to the mutation in Holstein cattle which is responsible for Cholesterol Deficiency. The test will be available in a few weeks. All new tests are directly available at our website.

Cholesterol deficiency (CD), a new autosomal recessive inherited genetic defect has been recently reported to influence the rearing success of calves. The affected animals show unresponsive diarrhea accompanied by hypocholesterolemia and usually die within the first weeks or months of life. A collaborating team of swissherdbook, the Swiss Holstein association, Swissgenetics, and the research group at the University of Bern (Switzerland) was able to detect a causative APOB gene mutation.

 

Due to the identified gene mutation homozygous affected calves are lacking an important element for lipid uptake in small intestine and liver. These findings explain that young calves die within a period of days to months after birth as a consequence of the onset of diarrhea.

 

The study confirmed that the responsible gene mutation was distributed worldwide by the Canadian Holstein sire Maughlin Storm born in 1991 and its progeny. For the first time the new gene test allows an absolutely certain determination of the causative mutation and represents an improvement of the indirect haplotype-based marker test which was published in summer 2015.

 

We expect significant interest for this test, as the mutation causes diarrhea which is not responsive to any veterinarian treatment.

Any questions? Please do not hesitate to contact us.