Creeper chickens

Bantam Krüper chicks and egg: left, long-legged chick; right, short-legged chick (tibia length marked in orange)

Creeper chickens are characterised by abnormally short legs, so short that the body is carried a few centimetres from the ground. This chondrodystrophy is caused by a recessive lethal allele, Cp.^[1]^: 58 A number of breeds display the characteristic, among them the Chabo and Jitokku breeds of Japan, the Courte-pattes of France, the Krüper of Germany, the Luttehøns of Denmark, and the Scots Dumpy.^[2]^: 438^[3]

The creeper gene

The creeper gene Cp was described by Cutler 1925, and confirmed by Landauer and Dunn in 1930; the symbol Cp was assigned to it by Hutt in 1933. It was shown to be present in the Chabo by Landauer in 1942, and in the Jitokko by Shibuya in 1972.^{[citation needed]}

References

^ F.B. Hutt (1949). Genetics of the Fowl. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
^ Janet Vorwald Dohner (2001). The Encyclopedia of Historic and Endangered Livestock and Poultry Breeds. New Haven, Connecticut; London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300088809.
^ Scots Dumpy / United Kingdom (Chicken). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed December 2019.

[hutt-1] F.B. Hutt (1949). Genetics of the Fowl. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.

[jan-2] Janet Vorwald Dohner (2001). The Encyclopedia of Historic and Endangered Livestock and Poultry Breeds. New Haven, Connecticut; London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300088809.

[dad-3] Scots Dumpy / United Kingdom (Chicken). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed December 2019.

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