Bos taurus
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English: Calf
German: Kalb
French: Veau
Spanish: Ternero
Distribution areas
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The skin of many varieties of the young
domestic cow has been used for thousands of
years in all inhibited regions.
Description of the fur
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The coat of the calf skin is usually The surface structure
brown and white, black and white spotted of the skin, 200x
or, in some cases uniformly coloured in all
shades of brown. The skin is from 60 to 100 cm long; the longer skins belong
to young cows. The length of the hair varies according to the variety but
usually they are short and relatively coarse. The fine fur fibres are about
15 to 35 mm long and are mostly moderately curled.
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Bos taurus
----------
English: Calf
German: Kalb
French: Veau
Spanish: Ternero
Structure of the hair
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The microscopic structure of the skin
surface appears smooth and the upper part
of the hair follicles is wide, with the
edges approximately at the same level as
the skin surface. The hairs usually emerge
from the follicles singly.
Transverse section
The fine fur fibres are of a circular or of an intermediate fibre, 600x
ellipsoidal cross-section and their
diameter is from 14 to 28 µm. The cuticular scales are cornet-like with a
smooth surface and straight margins. Almost all of the fine fibres are
medullated but the medulla is often narrow and broken longitudinally. The
overall medullar structure is of the spongy-cortex-like type and the
infilling substance is foam-like.
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Bos taurus
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English: Calf
German: Kalb
French: Veau
Spanish: Ternero
The intermediate fibres are straight,
with a circular or ellipsoidal outline in
cross-section. The cuticular scales are
flat, even tile-like, and both the scale
surface and the scale margins are smooth.
The medulla is wide and unbroken, with a
central symmetrical-shaped cross-section.
The diameter of the intermediate hair
fibres is from 28 to 35 µm. The overall The cuticular structure
structure of the medulla is spongy-cortex of the fine fibres, 1000x
-like with foam-like infilling material.
The guard hairs are distinctly oval or ellipsoidal in cross-sectional
outline; the diameter varies between 35 and 75 µm. In the lowest part,
nearest to the skin surface, the hair shafts are circular. The cuticular
scales are even tile-like or rounded tile-like in shape with smooth scale
surface and straight scale margins.
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Bos taurus
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English: Calf
German: Kalb
French: Veau
Spanish: Ternero
The medulla is wide and symmetrically
situated in the central part of the hair.
The medulla is unbroken longitudinally and
is of the spongy-cortex-like type, with a
foam-like infilling substance.
The cuticular structure
of an intermediate hair, 1000x
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Bos taurus
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English: Calf
German: Kalb
French: Veau
Spanish: Ternero
Longitudinal section
of a guard hair, 600x
Numerical code for calf skin structure
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Surface of the skin: 1-2-1
Fine fur fibres: 1-5-1-1-3-2-1-7-5-14.28-15.35
Intermediate fibres: 1.2-2-1-1-2-1-1-7-5-28.35-15.35
Guard hairs: 2-2.3-1-1-2-1-1-7-5-35.75-20.35
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