Genetic variabilityof the Bracco Italianodog breed based onmicrosatellite polymorphism

摘要

The Bracco Italiano is one of the oldestbreeds of Italian pointing dogs, used for huntingever since Renaissance times. After theSecond World War it was included among thebreeds officially recorded by the ENCI (theItalian Cynological Club), and since 1970 morethan 23,000 animals have been registered;there are currently approximately 750 birthsper year. In this paper, we present the breedcharacterization of the population at themolecular level using 21 STR markers from thepanels recommended for the 2006, 2008 and2010 ISAG canine comparison test. Number ofalleles, allele frequencies, deviations fromHardy-Weinberg proportions, linkage disequilibriumamong loci, genetic similarity, geneticdistances and molecular co-ancestry-basedparameters were calculated. The number ofalleles ranged from 3 to 9 (mean 6.43) whereasthe expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.44to 0.81 (mean 0.64). There was a high geneticsimilarity within the whole population (0.455)showing the great homogeneity of the sampledanimals, as confirmed also by the small kinshipdistance (0.336), by the high values of theself molecular coancestry (0.703) and of theinbreeding coefficient (0.406). These resultssuggest the need for a careful genetic managementof the population in order to avoid therisk of an excessive increase in the inbreedinglevel which would result in significant inbreedingdepression and in significant loss of geneticvariation.