calf born bald

[Anonymous]

Today we had a calf born from a hereford angus cross cow. The father is an angus. The calf was born with no hair on it's entire body! The calf was born alive. The calf had a slightly deformed lower jaw. It appeared to be a full term pregnancy. We have been raising cattle for 5 generations and have never seen any thing like this before. Has any one every heard of any thing that can cause this? Our vet did not know any answers either.

 

[Campground Cattle]

Hypotrichosis (Hairlessness)
Hairlessness occurs in several breeds of beef cattle. It expresses itself as complete or partial loss of hair. Calves are often born with no hair but will grow a short curly coat of hair with age. Affected individuals are prone to environmental stress (cold and wet) and skin infections are more prevalent. A recessive gene causes hairlessness

The English breeds have some unusal recessive traits as the breeders were trying to standardize the breeds in the 1800's. Dwarfism and other recessive traits arose the offspring where called snorters and destroyed.

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

Protect it and try to keep it until slaughter age. Then put in your freezer. Sorry about the calf...

 

[Ellie May]

My uncle had one like that once but it was a premature birth. I never knew about the hair loss thing campground. Thanx.
Ellie May

 

[Campground Cattle]

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Registration Certificate Revisions


Recently, registration certificates have been modified to allow identification of animals known to be carriers of known genetic defects. Some breeders may have already noticed this change as all certificates now carry a small box in the lower right hand corner which displays current genetic defects of Hereford cattle.

Within this box there is only one genetic defect listed and that is Hypotrichosis. This is a known genetic defect in Hereford cattle that can produce hairless calves. It is not a lethal defect. The box will appear on all registration certificates and does not mean the animal has a genetic defect. The HY abbreviation will appear below the name of animals in a pedigree that are known carriers of this defect. This is simply a safeguard to breeders with cattle that may have a known carrrier in a pedigree. This will allow potential customers to buy cattle with confidence and breed cattle accordingly.

Again, all registration certificates will have this box displayed, but only animals within a pedigree that are known carriers will have the prefix displayed below the animals name.

The American Hereford Association apologizes for any misconceptions or concerns this may have caused.

If you have further questions, please don't hesitate to call anyone in the records department of the AHA.