Abstract
Domestic bovine species By the process of domestication, several bovine species have adapted to an agricultural habitat. As shown in Table 3.1, taurine and indicine cattle are numerically the most important, followed by river and swamp buffalo. These species have spread to several continents, while the domestic forms of the yak, banteng and gaur are concentrated near the distribution areas of their wild ancestors. Domestication of the extinct kouprey ( Bos sauveli ) has been proposed after finding kouprey mtDNA in a museum specimen of a Cambodian bull (Hassanin et al . 2006). In line with molecular phylogenies (Buntjer et al . 2002; Verkaar et al . 2004; Nijman et al . 2008; Decker et al . 2009; MacEachern et al . 2009), taurine and zebu cattle can be crossed with other bovines, except buffaloes (Lenstra & Bradley 1999). Interspecific breeding may occur spontaneously or is carried out for terminal crossing or upgrading of breeds (Table 3.2). Hybrid taurine–zebu offspring are fertile, but crossing of zebu or taurine cattle to other species results in fertile cows and sterile bulls. Because of their complete cross-fertility, taurine and zebu cattle should both be considered as subspecies of the wild ancestor Bos primigenius . However, because they resulted from different domestications, here they are described separately. The same applies to the swamp and river types of water buffalo, the cross-fertile subspecies of the wild Bubalus arnee (Groeneveld et al . 2010; Yindee et al . 2010).
Published Version
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