Frog research to help cattle survive drought

Australia -

'CSIRO scientists hope studies on a western Queensland burrowing frog will help to improve Australia's beef industry.

Dr Nick Hudson says the fact the frogs can spend months or years underground in times of drought and emerge with no muscle wastage has great scope for livestock.

He is looking for a link between the frogs and cattle that do better in drought conditions.

"We're not interested in genetic engineering at all - what we want is to identify the key genes in the frog and use that to see if those same genes exist in natural livestock populations, and if they do then we can think about selecting for those animals specifically and they'll be animals that are really economical with their feed," Dr Hudson said.

After the current season, graziers will be well pleased not to have their cattle croak.'