Phenotypic Time Trend in Performance Evaluation of Dahlem Red Chicken under Intensive Management in Himachal Pradesh

A study was conducted to evaluate the production performance of Dahlem Red chicken over three consecutive generations maintained in intensive system. Dahlem Red birds were initially procured from CPDO Chandigarh and further produced through selective breeding. Performance traits evaluated were growth (day old chick weight, 4th week body weight (BW), 8th week BW, 12th week BW, 20th week BW and 40th week BW), age at sexual maturity, hen housed egg production (HHEP), hen day egg production (HDEP) and survivor egg production (SEP) at 40, 52 and 72 weeks of age and egg weight at 28, 40 and 52 weeks of age. Analysis revealed positive phenotypic trend in 4 week (17.58 g), 8 week (56.35 g), 12 week body weight (133.5 g), age at first egg (5.5 days) and age at 25% HHEP (2.0 days). The hen housed and hen day egg production at 40, 52 and 72 weeks revealed positive phenotypic trend of 4.79 and 1.93, 15.83 and 8.31, 31.6 and 13.98 eggs respectively. Further, survivor egg production also showed positive trend estimates at 40 and 52 weeks. Declining trends were observed in SEP at 72 week, day old chick weight (-0.89 g), 20 week BW (-37.99 g), 40 week BW (-141.2 g) and egg weight at 28 week (-1.7 g), 40 week (-3.3 g) and 52 week (-2.3 g). The results indicated the effectiveness of the selection along with improved management for bringing improvement in production traits in successive generations

IGF-1 Gene Polymorphism in Migratory Gaddi Goats of Western Himalayan Region, India

Goat production is a predominant livestock activity in harsh climatic regions of the country particularly hilly regions. ‘Gaddi’ is a prominent goat breed of Himachal Pradesh constituting 60-65% of total goat population of 11.20 lakh (19th Livestock Census, 2012). The somatotropic axis has a key role in postnatal growth and metabolism. IGF-1 gene encodes the protein that is structurally and functionally similar to insulin and regulates cellular synthesis of DNA as well as cellular growth and development, especially in neurons and also mediates the effect of GH gene. The present study was carried onÊ»Gaddiʼ, a distinct goat breed of high altitude areas of Western Himalayan region, for molecular characterization of IGF-1 gene and further analyse its association with growth traits. Blood samples from 63 genetically unrelated animals of Gaddi goat breed were taken from the migratory flocks under AICRP and Gaddi goat unit of CSKHPKV, Palampur and subjected to DNA isolation. 363 bp amplicon was generated and PCR-RFLP analysis using HaeIII restriction enzyme (RE) revealed two variants (AB and BB) however, no significant association could be established. Allele frequencies for A and B alleles were 0.25 and 0.75. The estimates obtained for Ne, Hobs, Hexp and PIC were 1.61, 0.51, 0.38 and 0.31, respectively. PIC value of 0.31 implies the effectiveness of the marker in population studies and also revealed median level of polymorphism. Sequencing confirmed one nucleotide mutation (C264G), however, no significant association were found at IGF-1 genotype with biometric traits in screened Gaddi goats

No Association of Prolactin Receptor (PRLR) Gene and litter size in Gaddi Goat Breed Reared under Migratory System in Western Himalayan Ranges of Himachal Pradesh

Gaddi is the predominant Indian goat breed also known as “White Himalayan goat”, constituting 60-65% of total goats in the state of Himachal Pradesh. The polymorphism of prolactin receptor (PRLR) gene was found to have relationship with prolificacy in goats. In present study, polymorphism of intron 2 region of PRLR gene was investigated in Gaddi goats (n = 89) using PCR-SSCP and DNA sequencing approach. PCR-SSCP assay of 176 bp amplicon of intron 2 region of PRLR gene revealed polymorphism with three types of genotypes viz., AA, AB and BB with genotypic frequencies as 0.31, 0.55 and 0.14, respectively. The allelic frequency of alleles A and B were 0.59 and 0.41, respectively in all the screened goat population. Genetic diversity analysis revealed the value of Ne, Hobs, Hexp and PIC were 1.96, 0.52, 0.49 and 0.37, respectively. The Ne and Hobs values also indicated that sufficient genetic variation exists at the studied locus. FIS estimate was observed as -0.15 indicating heterozygous excess at studied locus. DNA sequencing of amplified product revealed one nucleotide mutation (T92C) in intron 2 region of PRLR gene. The mean litter size in AA, AB and AB genotypes were 1.27±0.12, 1.41±0.09 and 1.84±0.26, respectively. No significant (P>0.05) associations of PRLR genotypes with litter size were observed. Effect of season and parity were also found to be non-significant (P>0.05) on litter size. Consequently, the study on additional data based on more number of animals in diversified flock should be carried out for future association studies.