Health
Some Shorthorns have been found to have a genetic defect called Tibial Hemimelia (TH), a disease caused by an abnormal gene. TH was identified in a small number of Shorthorn cattle in Canada in 1999. It is characterized by severe deformities in newborn calves, which are born with twisted rear legs with missing tibias (shin bones) and fused joints, large abdominal hernias and often skull deformities. They cannot stand to suckle and must be destroyed. All the affected animals descend from a single individual. The gene involved is recessive: the disease occurs only when homozygous (two copies of the gene are present); heterozygous (carrier) animals show no symptoms, but are likely to be much more widespread in the population than affected animals.
Read more about this topic: Shorthorn
Famous quotes containing the word health:
“In our great concern about the mental health of children, however, we have overlooked the mental health of mothers. They have been led to believe that their children’s needs must not be frustrated, and therefore all of their own normal angers, the normal ambivalences of living, are not permissible. The mother who has “bad” feelings toward her child is a bad mother.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“Any balance we achieve between adult and parental identities, between children’s and our own needs, works only for a time—because, as one father says, “It’s a new ball game just about every week.” So we are always in the process of learning to be parents.”
—Joan Sheingold Ditzion, Dennie, and Palmer Wolf. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 2 (1978)
“Many women who used to be full-time mothers are discovering that outside work gives them friends, challenges, variety, money, independence; it makes them feel better about themselves, and therefore lets them be better parents.”
—Wendy Coppedge Sanford. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, introduction (1978)