page_title: Chillingham cattle
section_title: Genetics
hierarchical_section_title: Chillingham cattle / Genetics
caption_attribution_description: English: 1890 photo of wild cattle of Chilligham
context_page_description: Chillingham cattle, also known as Chillingham wild cattle, are a breed of cattle that live in a large enclosed park at Chillingham Castle, Northumberland, England. In 2009 the cattle were described as "about 90 animals in Chillingham, which inhabit a very large park that has existed since the Middle Ages". The herd has remained remarkably genetically isolated for hundreds of years, surviving despite inbreeding depression due to the small population. There is also a small reserve herd of about 20 animals located on Crown Estate land near Fochabers, North East Scotland.
context_section_description: Chillingham bulls contributed genetically to White Park herds in the early 20th century, but the Chillingham herd has remained pure. Some degree of genetic affinity between Chillingham and White Park cattle would therefore be predicted, but this has not been investigated.  On historical grounds they are probably particularly closely related to the Vaynol cattle breed.
  The first genetic work was conducted from the early 1960s when, in connection with the development of blood typing techniques for cattle parentage testing, Dr. J. G. Hall of the Animal Breeding Research Organisation (Edinburgh) studied the blood groups of the Chillingham herd. The herd was found to be remarkably homozygous, and this is what would be expected from their long history of inbreeding. These findings were confirmed in a later microsatellite DNA study. Mitochondrial DNA  is of the same T3 sub-haplogroup as most European cattle though Chillingham cattle do possess certain rare variants; it is not yet clear what the implications are for understanding the history and continuing survival of the breed. There is remarkably little genetic variation in genes understood to be concerned with disease resistance.
caption: Wild cattle of Chillingham - Photograph c1890
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