Sleeping sickness resistant horse breeds?
- Thread starter leopard9
- Start date
I wouldn't say there are tsetse resistant cattle, more like tsetse tolerant cattle like the ndama. It still affects their size, milk flow, weight and energy levels its just over the years they've become one of the smallest cow breeds, don't produce much milk and don't have as extensive ranges.
It also likely descends from the Bos spp. That existed during the Neolithic Subpluvial or rather from the Sahel or northern mountains/nile that over millions of years adapted to periodic tsetse expansion. No horse species can really claim that much less actually survive in say Central Africa.
It also likely descends from the Bos spp. That existed during the Neolithic Subpluvial or rather from the Sahel or northern mountains/nile that over millions of years adapted to periodic tsetse expansion. No horse species can really claim that much less actually survive in say Central Africa.
Not for agriculture, but the horse has had a presence in Western Africa for over 1000 years and there would be a strong incentive to naturally create a tropical horse breed.
A few zebra-horse hybrids are fertile (females only), so it would theoretically be possible to have a horse breed with some zebra ancestry. This could, again theoretically, have the resistance of the zebra ancestor.
It would require some massively improbable sequences of events, but it might be possible.
It would require some massively improbable sequences of events, but it might be possible.
The only Equid other than the wild ass and onagar in what is now the Sahara and Sahel was only possibly burchells zebra but they died out long ago. I don't think they are appropriate however seeing as Zebra strategy to tsetse is in their stripes as a deterrent and from what I gather not a genetic tolerance or resistance. I would also question their ability to survive in the Equatorial Forests, their ability to survive in the Sahara-Sahel borderlands and their ability to go without water for 24+ hours like donkey or camel.
Horses and Calvary in West Africa were really important in the development and expansion of a number of states already, extending their range doesn't seem warranted really or possible without creating a new species of Equid.
ComradeHuxley
Donor
These pony/horses could be interesting:
Source:
International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds
by Bonnie L. Hendricks
Source:
International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds
by Bonnie L. Hendricks