Chemical and electron microscopic studies of cattle (Bos taurus) with four types of phenotypic pigmentation.

The biological behavior of the pigmentary phenotypes of four breeds of cattle has been analysed: the black pigmentation of Holstein Friesian; the red pigmentation of Limousin; the dilution in Charolais; and the postnatal disappearance of red pigmentation in Chianina. The analytic techniques included the characterization of melanins by high-performance liquid chromatography, the examination of follicular melanocytes by light microscopy, and the examination of melanosomes by electron microscopy. The black phenotype was very strongly eumelanogenic.

Estimating erosion of phenotypic variation in a French goat population.

A survey was made on a sample of 45 flocks of the goat population in Provence France in 1982. The sample included 56 male goats and 757 breeding females within a 30 km radius of the town of Forcalquier (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence). The visible phenotypic profile was established for the following characters: ear length, ear curling, ear erectness, presence of horns, type of horns, presence of wattles, presence of beard, length of hair, hair coat pigmentation pattern, type of eumelanin in hair, pigment alteration of hair, and white spotting (36 different phenotypes).