ZEBU CATTLE IN BRAZIL 



Imported Stock Crossed on Native — Hybrids are Popular with Ranchers 

 Disease-Resistant and Fairly good Milkers — High Prices 

 Paid — Possibilities of Interest to United States. 



B. H. HUNNICUTT 



Director, Escola Agricola, Lavras, Minas Geraes, Brazil 



-Hardy, 



specimens which he had seen in a 

 menagerie, and which had been given 

 by the showman the apparently fic- 

 titious name of zebu, a name? not known 

 in India. 



As far as I have been able to learn, 

 the first importations of zebus to Brazil 

 were made about forty years ago^, one 

 of the earliest being by Sr. Acacio 

 Americo Correa de Azevedo, who se- 

 cured a bull and cow from London 

 Zoological Gardens. It is probable 

 that all the early importations''' were 

 made from London by the English 

 firm, Crashley & Co. ; only in later years 

 have the importations on a large scale 

 been made direct from India. 



CATTLE BRING HIGH PRICES 



The breed gained rapidly in popular- 

 ity. Some twenty years ago an offer 

 was made"* in Uberaba, Minas, of 

 42 contos de reis for a zebu bull. This is 

 about $14,000 in American gold; and, 

 by the way, the offer was refused. The 

 owner of this bull amassed quite a 

 fortune and the herd is still considered 

 the best in Brazil. It is now in the 

 hands of the son who has become a 

 millionaire as a result of his reputation 



1 For an account of what has been done in this direction, see Borden, A. P., "Indian Cattle in 

 the United States," American Breeders' Magazine, I, 91, Washington, 1910 (also in annl. report 

 A. B. A., VI, 1910) ; "Zebu Cattle Resistant to Texas Fever," ibid. Ill, 233, 1912 (see also twenty- 

 sixth annl. report of the Bureau of Animal Industry, Washington); Nabours, Robert K., "Possi- 

 bilities for a New Breed of Cattle in the vSouth," ihid., IV, 38, 1913. For a discussion of the 

 genetic problems involved in zebu crosses see Nabours, R. K., "Evidence of Alternative Inherit- 

 ance, etc.," in Anier. Naturalist, July, 1912, and Cook, O. F., "Mendehsm and Interspecific 

 Hybrids," ihid., April, 1913. 



« Inquerito sobre o Zebu, vSociedade Nacional de Agncultura, Rio de Janiero, 190/. 



3 It is probable that, as Nabours refers in his article on Zebu cattle (Possibilities of a New Breed 

 of Cattle, R. K. Nabours, American Breeder's Magazine, Vol. IV, No. 1) to the mtroduction into 

 the United States of Indian cattle characteristics, especially in the Southwest, through Mexico 

 from Spain the influence of the breed was introduced into Brazil soon after the discovery. Or 

 as x'Vnderson says ("A Fazenda" Anno 111, N. 29, Out. de 1912) in his letter to Dr. Travassos, 

 there may have been importations into northern Brazil several centuries ago. 



^ "A Criagao do Gado no Brazil," M. Bernardez, Imprensa Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, 1909. 



195 



ZEBU cattle arc attracting atten- 

 tion from animal breeders in all 

 the warmer parts of the world 

 at the present time, and are 

 assmning particular importance among 

 ranchers in the southern United States, 

 because of their relative immunity to 

 the disastrous Texas fever. ^ Many 

 genetists believe that by crossing the 

 zebu on native stock, a new breed can 

 be produced that will be of great value ; 

 and as Brazil has been making such an 

 experiment on a very large scale for 

 many 3^ears, I think it will be of interest 

 to breeders to know what the results 

 have been as they appear to me and 

 to other students. 



The zebu {Bos indicus), as is well 

 known, is a native of the Indo-Malayan 

 region, and was certainly domesticated 

 several thousand years before the l^egin- 

 ning of the Christian era. According 

 to C. Kellar, it represents nothing more 

 than a domesticated Banting {Bos 

 sundaiciis) , although most students look 

 on it as the result of hybridization. The 

 name "zebu" is said to have been given 

 it by the French naturalist Buffon, 

 who described it in his Histoirc Naturelle 

 (pubHshed from 1749 to 1767) from 



