Hairgrove said even though they identified the cause, the goal of finding the answer to one question kept the project alive over the many years: How can I select against it?
From 2016 until 2023, Petersen’s lab worked on locating the mutation for this condition. It was found in the fall of 2023.
“We can now select against this condition. Until about a year ago, we kept striking out,” Hairgrove said. “Many times, we were ready to give up, but we kept trying and finally figured it out. We found semen from the grandfather of that original bull we used in our study, and he did not have the mutation, so that helped identify the specific marker.”
That was the whole reason for the ongoing research, he said, to allow the Angus industry to test bulls before introducing them into their breeding herds.
“We know it has been reported for years, and people see it in their herds, but they didn’t know how to select against it,” Hairgrove said. “Now they have a way to prevent it from entering their herd.”
This article was republished with permission from Texas A&M AgriLife Today.