Conservation Genetics of Endangered Horse Breeds

About this book

This book is particularly interesting for both horse breeders and molecular geneticists. Equids (horses and asses) have a particular place in human culture and history. There are strong arguments for conservation of rare, endangered horse breeds and populations, however the maintenance of native breeds does not result in profitable business.Some populations and namely rare horse breeds need to be re-evaluated yet, others need to be saved from extinction very urgently.

Enlisting the aid of modern science gives us many tools for reaching decisions to realize the preservation of different rare populations and not to use solely pedigrees, conformation and historical data. The molecular genetic approach and the phenotypic estimation of the values of different breeds is more and more useful.

Hence, it was the right time for Horse Commission of EAAP together with Rare Breeds International (RBI) to perform a session devoted to the topic of progress in molecular genetics of horses. This book summarizes the papers on molecular genetic description of horse breeds and some aspects of evolution of horse species.

Contents

Foreword 7; Introduction 11; Molecular methods and equine genetic diversity 15; E.P. Cunningham; The use of markers for characterising genetic resources 25; L. Ollivier, C. Chevalet and J.L. Foulley; A review on the methods of parentage and inbreeding analysis with molecular markers 35; B. Langlois; Genetic distance as a tool in the conservation of rare horse breeds 55; E.G. Cothran and C. Luis; Variation of mitochondrial DNA in Lipizzan horses 73; T. Kavar, F. Habe, H. Solkner and P. Dovc; Analysis of inbreeding in the genetic resource of the "Old Kladrub horse" in the period from 1993 to 2003 85; V. Jakubec, J. Volenec, I. Majzlik and W. Schlote; The numerical and genetic status of native horse and pony breeds in Britain 91; G.L.H. Alderson; Characterisation of several Connemara Pony populations 99; D. Feely, P. Brophy and K. Quinn; Genetic characterisation of the Croatian autochthonous horse breeds based on polymorphic blood proteins and mtDNA data 105; A. Ivankovic, P. Dovc, P. Caput, P. Mijic and M. Konjacic; Estimation of genetic distance between traditional horse breeds in Hungary 111; S. Mihok, B. Ban, C. Jozsa, and I. Bodo; Genetic diversity of the Akhal-Teke horse breed in Turkmenistan based on microsatellite analysis 123; A. Szontagh, B. Ban, I. Bodo, E.G. Cothran, W. Hecker, Cs. Jozsa, A. Major; Rare horse breeds in Northern Europe 129; M.T. Saastamoinen and M. Maenpaa; Use of probabilities of gene origin to describe genetic varation in two endangered Norwegian horse breeds 137; H.F. Olsen, G. Klemetsdal, J. Ruane and T. Helfjord; Bardigiano horse selection: a genetic global index for linear type traits 147; M. Fioretti, A.L. Catalano, A. Rosati and F. Martuzzi; The Italian Heavy Draught Horse breed: origin, breeding program, efficiency of the selection scheme and inbreeding 155; R. Mantovani, G. Pigozzi and G. Bittante; Genetic characterization of Pentro young horses by microsatellite markers 163; D. Iamartino, M. Fidotti, N. Miraglia and F. Pilla. The Retuertas horse: the "missing link" in the Iberoamerican horse breeds origin? 167; J.L. Vega-Pla, J. Calderon, P.P. Rodriguez-Gallardo, B. Alcaide, F.T.P.S. Sereno, M.R. Costa, E. Perez-Pineda, J.V. Delgado and C. Rico; Genetic diversity of the Zemaitukai Horse 177; R. Juras and E.G. Cothran; Keyword index 185; Author index 187.

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