The polymorphism of six microsatellites was investigated in four indigenous pig breeds (Erhualian, Tongcheng, Qingping and Wannanhua) and three introduced breeds (Large White, Landrace and Duroc) in China. The genetic variations within and among populations were analyzed. The results showed that genetic diversity of Chinese indigenous pig breeds is higher than that of the introduced pig breeds....

A study was undertaken to compare the longevity and lifetime lamb output of purebred Scottish Blackface (BF) ewes with a range of crossbred genotypes from Scottish BF dams. For up to five successive breeding seasons, 1143 Scottish BF, Swaledale × BF (SW × BF), North Country Cheviot × BF (CH × BF), Lleyn × BF (LL × BF) and Texel × BF (T × BF) ewes were mated to a range of sire breeds on six hill...

This study aimed to assess genetic diversity within and between nine Vietnamese local chicken breeds and two Chinese breeds included for comparison. Genotyping 29 microsatellites revealed high diversity of both Vietnamese and Chinese breeds. Cluster analysis using the STRUCTURE software suggested six clusters as the most likely grouping of the 11 breeds studied. These groups encompassed four ho...

We compared the genetic diversity and distance among six German draught horse breeds to wild (Przewalski's Horse), primitive (Icelandic Horse, Sorraia Horse, Exmoor Pony) or riding horse breeds (Hanoverian Warmblood, Arabian) by means of genotypic information from 30 microsatellite loci. The draught horse breeds included the South German Coldblood, Rhenish German Draught Horse, Mecklenburg Cold...

In the present study, genetic analyses of diversity and differentiation were performed on four Basque-Navarrese semiferal native horse breeds. In total, 417 animals were genotyped for 12 microsatellite markers. Mean heterozygosity was higher than in other horse breeds, surely as a consequence of management. Although the population size of some of these breeds has declined appreciably in the pas...

Land use is intensifying in southern Kajiado District, Kenya. In the 1960s and 1970s, land used communally by Maasai was divided into group ranches with title held collectively by ranch members. Some ranches have since been divided into parcels owned by individual members. Other sources of land use intensification include human population growth and immigration, more intensive livestock managem...

The Nordic and Baltic countries and North-western Russia have >20 old native sheep breeds. These together with recently synthesized breeds and local populations of international breeds make up the northern European sheep diversity. Changes in agriculture threaten to erode genetic diversity in sheep. Molecular genetic variation was assessed to understand genetic diversity in northern European sh...

Giara and Sarcidano are 2 of the 15 extant native Italian horse breeds with limited dispersal capability that originated from a larger number of individuals. The 2 breeds live in two distinct isolated locations on the island of Sardinia. To determine the genetic structure and evolutionary history of these 2 Sardinian breeds, the first hypervariable segment of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was s...

An evaluation of the European pig diversity has been carried on by several countries, with the support of the European Union over the period of 1994 to 2000. This article presents an overview of the results of this investigation, focussing on two genetic marker techniques, namely microsatellites (MS) and amplification of fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). Nearly 200 loci were characterised on...