Phenotypic Characterization of Indigenous Chicken Population in Ethiopia.

Phenotypic characterization of indigenous chicken ecotypes in two districts of Ethiopia was done using multivariate analyses. Chickens were managed under traditional scavenging system. Qualitative and quantitative morphological traits were analyzed. Out of nineteen distinct plumage colors, brown mottled and red were the predominant ones. Among ecotypes all qualitative traits were significant (P<0.05). Multiple correspondence analysis showed 18.96% of the total variation explained by the first two dimensions. Long legs, large combs and wattle could be indicative of better heat dissipation of birds in tropical hot environment. Discriminant analysis identified shank length, body length, comb width, body weight, wingspan and comb height to have more discriminating power causing morphological variation between chicken ecotypes. The correlation between the first canonical variable and the two chicken ecotypes is moderate (0.55), canonical variables being highly significant based on the Wilks lambda test. Hundred nineteen chickens (86.2%) that belonged to Horro ecotype were correctly classified with 13.8% rate of error while 123 chickens (80.4%) that belonged to Jarso ecotype were correctly classified leaving 19.6% error rate.

Comparison of SNP Variation and Distribution in Indigenous Ethiopian and Korean Cattle (Hanwoo) Populations

Although a large number of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been identified from the bovine genome-sequencing project, few of these have been validated at large in Bos indicus breeds. We have genotyped 192 animals, representing 5 cattle populations of Ethiopia, with the Illumina Bovine 8K SNP BeadChip. These include 1 Sanga (Danakil), 3 zebu (Borana, Arsi and Ambo), and 1 zebu x Sanga intermediate (Horro) breeds. The Hanwoo (Bos taurus) was included for comparison purposes. Analysis of 7,045 SNP markers revealed that the mean minor allele frequency (MAF) was 0.23, 0.22, 0.21, 0.21, 0.23, and 0.29 for Ambo, Arsi, Borana, Danakil, Horro, and Hanwoo, respectively. Significant differences of MAF were observed between the indigenous Ethiopian cattle populations and Hanwoo breed (p or =0.10 and < or =0.5) accounted for an overall estimated 73.79% of the 7,045 SNPs. The Hanwoo displayed a higher proportion of common variant SNPs (90%). Investigation within Ethiopian cattle populations showed that on average, 16.64% of the markers were monomorphic, but in the Hanwoo breed, only 6% of the markers were monomorphic. Across the sampled Ethiopian cattle populations, the mean observed and expected heterozygosities were 0.314 and 0.313, respectively. The level of SNP variation identified in this particular study highlights that these markers can be potentially used for genetic studies in African cattle breeds.