DNA testing in range settings

摘要

DNA paternity identification (ID) and progeny testing may be profitable for open-range beef cattle operations with bull-culling rates of 20% or greater. University of Nevada researchers say. A panel of 15 microsatellites was genotyped in 2,196 animalsfrom eight ranches with a total of 31,571 genotypes. Probabilities of exclusion for each marker within ranch and across ranches were computed. Joint probabilities of exclusion for the 15 microsatellites were also determined, resulting in values over 0.99 for any individual ranch and across ranches. Dropping 1 or 2 microsatellites with the lowest probabilities of exclusion resulted in joint probabilities greater than 0.99 and with marginal reduction compared with the probabilities with 15 microsatellites.