TELEGONY IN STOCKBREEDING

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 148, 18 March 1939, Page 4 (Supplement)

TELEGONY IN STOCKBREEDING

Previous Sire Influence

DISPROOF BY SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENT

The writer some years ago became involved in a very weighty argument on the subject of telegony—the influence of a previous sire upon subsequent matings. Having at that time made considerable study of Mendel’s Laws of Inheritance, some readings of Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species,” and of biology generally, I “pooh-poohed” the whole matter as a stpekbreeding superstition. A young Englishman present, whose father at Home was a noted breeder of pedigree pigs and of horses, firmly believed in previous sire influence. A capable New Zealand-born farm manager present supported the principle. Challenged to do so. I wrote to the Department of Agriculture, and was dismayed to receive a reply that while evidence to support telegony was not complete and so it could not be regarded as proven, yet it could not be denied out of hand.

I was therefore deeply interested in the report given below, published in an Australian journal. As the subject is one of wide interest to all breeders of animals, the article is published in full: — Even iu such an age-old business as stoekbreeding, certain beliefs persist that have not the slightest foundation in fact and today many sane and otherwise perfectly sensible persons adhere to these superstitions. One of the most prevalent of such beliefs is that of “telegony,” the term for the supposed influence of a former sire on subsequent sires from the same dam. Herd societies have been known even to introduce rules debarring a dam from registration in the event of having been mated to a mongrel sire or the sire of another breed. Among dog-breeders there are many who insist that a bitch may be spoilt for all time if she is joined with a dog of any other breed than her own, but the same mistaken idea is met with among breeders of almost every other type of animal. So widespread is the belief in telegony that several famous scientists and many breeders have carried out hundreds of experiments to try to produce telegonic examples purposely, but they have never succeeded, in so doing. On the other hand, these investigations have proved that there is not the slightest basis for the belief iu such happening. A Famous Case. On occasions there have been births reported that seem to indicate that at least occasionally something happens that it is possible to connect with the superstition of telegony. One of the most famous ot such apparent proofs of at least the possibility of telegony is the ancient story of Lord Morton’s Arab mare. This virgin beast was joined with a male quagga, a species of zebra, and dropped a definitely hybrid animal. Subsequently she was joined twice to a purebred Arab stallion, and on eacli occasion gave birth to foals with marked quaggo-like characteristics, notably stripes on various parts, and the stiff, upstanding mane characteristic of the wild horse. This looked like definite proof of telegonic influence. Actually subsequent matings of Arab parents have given birth to similar freaks, without any previous wild honse influence, the truth being that the wild horse symptoms are liable to occur at any time because of the well-established tendency’ of all animals to “throw-back” occasionally to some prehistoric ancestor. Very often a new-born foal will show quite distinct striped markings for a few hours after birth, but these subsequently fade away. It is the dangerous ’’reversion to type” tendency with which breeders are well acquainted. In many cases investigation proves very definitely that any apparent freak is caused, not by the influence of a previous mate, but by that of a forefather. Professor Ewart was able to thus disprove alleged cases of telegony. A tail dachshund bitch was mated with a tan dog and bore a litter of pups with white bodies and tan cheeks and ears. As she had already had a litter to a fox terrier with these markings, this was hailed as a clear proof of the influence of the previous sire. Professor Ewart was sceptical, specially as the pups were apparently perfectly good dachshunds in everything except the colour, so he traced their pedigree back till he found records in the six generation of a dog from a kennel whose owner made a hobby of tan dachshunds with white cheeks and ears. It just happened that this particular mating afforded an opportunity to latent tendencies iu the biteh toward white cheeks and ears, and was clearly “reversion” and not “telegony.” Scientific Disproof. In the event of any breeder happening across a case of what he might thiuk to

be telegony he could carry out an experiment ou the lines that Professor Ewart did with the zebra stallion Matopa. He mated this animal with the Highland pony Mulatto, and a hybrid resulted. The following year she was joined to a black. Arab stallion, and the foal gave definite indications of zebra influence, which, however, became very indistinct as the youngster grew. The following year the mare was joined with a West Highland stallion and again the foal seemed to show some signs of a previous zebra sire. This seemed fairly definite proof, but to test it further Professor Ewart secured two virgin mares, closely related to Mulatto, but which had never seen a zebra in their lives. These were covered by the same black Arab stallion which had foaled the doubtful Mulatto foal. Twin foals resulting from this union, both showed distinctly the so-called wild horse markings, one in particular being quite strongly striped. This was nothing to do with Matopa’s influence, but was simply a reversionary trait and proved very definitely that the tendency to produce striped foals had strongly developed in the Mulatto blood.