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[INHERITANCE IN CATTLES] Genetika krupnogo rogatogo skota [i.e. The Genetics of Cattle]

Ivanova, O.

Moscow; Leningrad: Ogiz - Gos. izd-vo s.-kh. i kolkhoz.-koop. lit-ry, 1931. Item #1553

128 pp.: ill. 15.4x23.3 cm. In original publisher’s wrappers. Tears of the spine and edges, Soviet library label on the front wrapper. Otherwise good.

Scarce. First edition. An interesting work on the genetics of cattle written by one of the founders of Soviet genetics Olga Ivanova (1901-1986).

The book represents an outcome of the two-year-long research carried out by the author at the Central Genetic Station, where Ivanova worked as head of the cattle genetics department. The late 1920-s was a period of the drastic increase in the number of sovkhozes and kolkhozes, the successful functioning of which largely depended on the study of inheritance issues in cattle. The edition served as one of the first Soviet researches concentrating on the inheritance of both exterior signs and some potentialities of productivity in cattle. Importantly, the publication was based not on the generally accepted Mendelian analysis (which was banned in the USSR from the 1930s), but on the study of cattle available in breeding farms and peasant herds. Such type of research provided a unique chance of observing differentiations in cattle across vast territories of the Soviet Union.

In the book, the author focuses on the inheritance of symmetry of the development of the udder in cattle, inheritance of piebald in cattle and inheritance of coloration and other exterior signs, such as the shape of horns. One of the discoveries made by Ivanova through pedigree analysis of a symmetry index was that asymmetry of udder development was hereditary and based upon a single dominant gene. Another important section, ‘Analysis of Geographic Dissemination of Genes in Cattle in the Population of Oka-Volga Basin’, represents the scientific outcome of the expedition into the territories from Moscow (Moscow-Kazan) to Astrakhan (Kazan-Astrakhan). As a result of the expedition, which implied examination of 5100 livestock, Ivanova together with V. Fless-Kovarsky brought to light a correlation between geographical area and certain exterior signs and productivity potentialities in cattle. Based on the local observations, the researchers got the chance to make generalizations. For example, the study showed that the number of cows with the light coloring of the nose increased in the south. As a result, the researchers concluded that the gene that defines the pink nose in cows was dominant in the southern territories.

The edition includes multiple black and white illustrations depicting different types of cattle that were used during the observations, as well as numerous tables and diagrams reflecting the procession of the scientific research.

Olga Ivanova was an esteemed Soviet geneticist, breeder and pedagogue, who became involved in the field at the age of 17. After graduating from Moscow Zootechnical Institute in 1925, Olga worked as Head of the Department of Cattle Genetics at the Central Genetic Station, and Head of the Department of Breeding and Genetics of Agricultural Animals in the Orenburg, Voronezh and Ulyanovsk Zoovetinstitutes. In 1948, during the dissemination of Lysenkoism (a movement that proclaimed genetics a fake bourgeoisie science), Ivanova refused to criticize classical genetics, for what she was suspended from teaching at universities. Olga is the author of numerous works, among which the most popular are Razvedeniye sel’skokhozyaystvennykh zhivotnykh [i.e. Breeding of Farm Animals] (1935) and Genetics of Cattle.

Overall, the book represents one of the first detailed studies of the inheritance patterns in cattle.

No copies found in Worldcat.

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