Plant & Animal Genome VI Conference

P50

INTRA- AND INTER-RACIAL GENETIC VARIATION IN NORTH-EUROPEAN CATTLE BREEDS

1. Inst. of Animal Production, Agricultural Research Centre MTT, FIN-31600 Jokioinen, Finland
2. Dept. of Morphology, Genetics and Aquatic Biology, Norwegian College of Veterinary Medicine, P.O. Box 8146 Dep., N-0033 Oslo, Norway
3. Dept. of Breeding and Genetics, Danish Institute of Agricultural Science, P.O. Box 39, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark
4. Dept. of Animal Science, Agricultural University of Norway, P.O. Box 5025, N-1432 Ås, Norway
5. Dept. of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7023, S-75007 Uppsala, Sweden
6. Agricultural Research Institute, Keldnaholt, IS-112 Reykjavik, Iceland
7. Nordic Gene Bank for Farm Animals, Agricultural University of Norway, P.O. Box 5025, N-1432 Ås, Norway

A collaborative project involving the five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) and aiming at the genetic characterization and comparison of Nordic cattle breeds has been undertaken. The genetic diversity of 22 breeds was analysed by determining allele frequencies of 10 microsatellite loci, 11 red cell antigen systems, 4 plasma proteins and 4 milk protein genes. Blood samples from unrelated individuals (no grand-parents in common) from each breed was collected as far as possible. The number of animals per breed ranged from 11 to 49 with 30-40 for the majority of breeds. In spite of their small population size similar levels of intrabreed genetic variation was detected in the native old breeds as in the larger modern commercial breeds. This indicates that the small Nordic breeds still have retained a fairly high genetic diversity. The calculated genetic distances may be useful for the future management of the breeds giving information on the most closely related breeds in case of need for intercrossing to avoid inbreeding. Two dendrograms, one obtained from the microsatellite data and one from the red cell antigen data showed differences in the position of some breeds. This project has been integrated in a European Conserted Action effort. By increasing the number of microsatellite loci with more markers from the list of 30 recommended for cattle diversity studies, we expect to be able to compare our data with data from most of the European cattle breeds.