A HERD OF ALBINO CATTLE 
J. A. DETLEFSEN 
College of Agriculture, University of Illinois, Urbana 
Kaslow of Mora, Minnesota, 
obtained two albinotic calves— 
a bull and a heifer. The calves were 
the result of mating a so-called full- 
blooded Holstein bull to grade Hol- 
stein cows. The parents were of 
normal coat color, black and white 
spotted. Unfortunately, the bull was 
killed before his offspring were born. 
Mr. Kaslow was attracted by the beau- 
tiful white coat and pink eyes of the 
calves and proceeded tomake matings 
for the purpose of increasing the 
number of albinos. He was entirely 
successful in his efforts and secured a 
score or more albinos in the course of 
a few years. 
My attention was drawn to this 
interesting herd through the courtesy 
of Professor H. K. Hayes, of the Col- 
lege of Agriculture, University of 
Minnesota, and I corresponded with 
the local county agent and Mr. Kaslow 
to obtain details of the case. Unfor- 
tunately, Mr. Kaslow’s records were 
destroyed in a fire, and the following 
comments depend on his memory 
to a large extent, supplemented by 
such observations as I was able to 
make when opportunity was afforded 
to examine the herd. While not ques- 
tioning the correctness of the data, I 
can not vouch for their accurary, since 
they depend upon a memory of events 
which took place during the course of 
several years. However, since the 
herd is quite unique, at least a record 
of its existence should be made. 
A BOUT six years ago, Mr. Martin 
UNUSUAL RECORD OF ALBINO BULL 
The original full-blooded Holstein 
bull was mated to about twenty unre- 
lated grade Holsteins producing a bull 
and a heifer albino, and the rest normal. 
In the absence of more data, the case 
would appear like other simple cases 
of albinism in which a heterozygous 
male was accidentally mated to similar 
females and naturally some albino 
segregates appeared. But the subse- 
quent matings, according to Mr. Kas- 
low’s statement, do not bear outsucha 
simple hypothesis, for the young Fi 
albino bull was mated back to the 
grade Holstein cows and produced only 
albinos—about twenty in number. If 
Mr. Kaslow’s observations are correct, 
the case is rather remarkable, for an 
original mating of normal-coated Hol- 
steins gave an apparent recessive 
segregate—an albino bull. And yet this 
bull acted like a homozygous dominant 
in matings with normally-coated Hol- 
stein cows. 
Mr. Kaslow states that the albinos, 
when mated inter se, have given only 
albinos and exhibited four young albino 
calves which were reported to have 
come from such a mating. Further- 
more, four albino females were mated 
to a registered Holstein bull and pro- 
duced three albinos and one normal 
Holstein. 
NOT CORRELATED WITH MILK 
PRODUCTION 
As far as I could determine by ex- 
amination, the albinos showed no pig- 
ment in the skin, eyes, horns, or hoofs, 
exceptin one case. One adult female had 
asmall black spot about one centimeter 
square on oneear. Mr. Kaslow had not 
noted any similar appearances of pig- 
ment in other individuals and was 
somewhat surprised when this case was 
pointed out to him. The albinos were 
extremely sensitive to light and grazed 
in a listless manner during the daytime 
with their eyes partly closed and their 
pupils contracted. In the evening, the 
vision was apparently normal, and the 
albinos showed much more animation. 
The albino character seems to be un- 
correlated with milk production for this 
albino herd produces about the same 
amount of milk expected of similar 
grades. 
378 
