vechur cow the shortest cow

The Vechur cow (also spelled Vechoor cow) is a rare breed of Bos indicus cattle named after the village of Vechur in Kottayam district, Kerala, India. With an average length of 124 cm and height of 87 cm it is the smallest cattle breed in the world and is valued for the larger amount of milk it produces relative to the amount of food it requires. The Vechur cow was popular in Kerala until the 1960s but became rare when native cattle were crossbred with exotic varieties. In mid-2000s, scientists at Kerala Agricultural University began a programme of conservation and study of the breed.About 200 cows are supposed to exist today, nearly 100 of them with the Veterinary College. A recent report claims that the milk of the Vechur cow has more of the beta casein variety A2, rather than the variety A1 which is implicated in diseases like diabetes, ischaemic heart disease and autism . Average milk production of the Vechur cows is 2.3Kg/day. The age at first heat is 19 months and the average age of first lactation is 36 months. The inter calving period is about 14 months. The mean milk fat at 20 weeks of lactation is 6.235% and the SNF is 8.88%. A controversy arose in 1997 when environmentalist Vandana Shiva stated that a Scottish company, the Roslin Institute, was trying to patent the cow's genetic code. Shiva described the action as piracy. The Roslin Institute denied the charge. : The milk of the indigenous, small-sized Vechur cow is more beneficial to health than the milk from cross-bred bovine varieties. beta casein A2, a milk protein that prevents diabetes, heart diseases, atherosclerosis, autism and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), is found in Vechur cattle in higher measure than in other breeds such as: Jersey, Holstein-Friesian and Brown Swiss which are Keralite’s favourites. Beta casein is a major milk protein that imparts biological, technological and physical properties to milk. There has been a finding recently that beta casein yields biologically active peptides during digestion that takes place in the intestine. Among 12 beta casein variants, two common types have been identified as A1 and A2. The former has been found to trigger releases of substances that cause various illnesses like diabetes, heart diseases, atherosclerosis, schizophrenia and SIDS. However A2 is found to be safe for human consumption. Milk breeds such as Holstein Friesian and Ayrshire have a high frequency of A1 gene but most of the Indian breeds of animals have only the beneficial A2 gene.