Kenyan researchers track success of slick genetics

Queensland Country Life

Nelson Kipchirchir, who works at the Kapiti Research Station and Wildlife Conservancy in south eastern Kenya, talks about the introduction of slick genetics and their monitoring work.

Transcript

00:00It's the slick group. So we have the slick calves and then we have the animals that are in the digital tool project.

00:10So you see these guys with sensors on their necks. This one.

00:15So those are the animals that are in the digital tool project.

00:19So we are able to record their spatial ecology or their movement across the ranch.

00:25We are also able to see how they are behaving, how they are breathing, how they are ruminating.

00:30If they cough, we will be able to have that data.

00:34So they have a bolus inside the rumen also to complement the sensor.

00:40And then when they go back to the enclosure, we will be recording their movement around the bomber, feeding,

00:47and any other physiological differences. They have a face to compare with.

00:53The females that have given birth to calves are on milk trials.

00:57They are on tick trials. They are on weight gain trials and all that.

01:01So it's an animal that is just being introduced into studies now.

01:07And you got those generics from New Zealand, did you say?

01:10Yes, the livestock improvement company in New Zealand.

01:13Which two breeds are these again?

01:16So if you see the black and white, that is a Prussian Boran cross.

01:22Okay. Yes.

01:23So are Prussian known for the traits that you are studying? Or?

01:29No, I think they are only using, you know, they are only using this Prussian Boran cross to give birth to slick animals, to a slick.

01:40They are just being served with the cement from a slick sire, so that we have babies.

01:46A kind of a prolactin gene is responsible for introducing these characteristics to the animals, to the pure breeds in Africa or something.

01:55So the animals will have tolerance to extreme temperature.

01:58They will be able to produce milk under extremes.

02:01They will have a thinner haircut compared to what oppression we have.

02:05The tip of their hair is a kind of shiny.

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