ABSTRACT
Ca Rater Mallorquí is a dog breed from the Island of Mallorca (Spain) traditionally used as a hunting and ratting dog to prevent disease spread and economic losses related to rodent activities on farms. However, the census data shows a population decline that should be addressed by implementing a conservation program. The first step to implementing a conservation plan is knowing the genetic situation of the Ca Rater Mallorquí population. Therefore, we aimed to genetically characterise the breed in our study. We analysed 33 microsatellites recommended by the International Society of Animal Genetics (ISAG) in 77 samples. Data were obtained from 13 samples of Balearic, Spanish, and international dog breeds to study the genetic diversity among breeds. The population did not significantly deviate from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium with heterozygosity (Ho) of 0.655 and expected heterozygosity (He) of 0.685. The Wright's fixation indices, the Factorial Correspondence Analysis (FCA), a dendrogram representing Reynolds genetic distance between populations, and the pairwise FST values establish the Ca Rater Mallorquí as an independent breed distinct from the Balearic, Spanish, and international breeds.
ABSTRACT
Domestic pig breeds reached America on the second Columbus trip; from this date, Iberian pig genetic resources were disseminated throughout the continent, forming diverse creole breeds. These Ecuadorian Creole pigs are important for food production but have been genetically eroded since the introduction of transboundary breeds. In this study, we sought to characterize this erosion more thoroughly through mitochondrial DNA D-Loop analysis of Ecuadorian Pillareño Creole pigs from seven regions of Ecuador. To allow comparison, we also included in our analysis sequences from wild species, commercial lines, and domestic pigs, which were obtained from the NCBI GenBank database. Creole pigs' population showed overall moderate Hd values and low π values, and a negative value of Tajima's D was observed. The greatest differentiation from the Ecuadorian Pillareño Creole pigs was observed between Asian wild and Asian domestic pigs. The haplotype analysis revealed three different phylogenetic clades (A, E I, and E II) and 65 haplotypes. Ecuadorian Creole populations were grouped into nine haplotypes for Clade E I and E II, which have not previously been reported for Creole Pillareño populations. Our analysis indicates that in the establishment of Creole Pillareño pigs, individuals most likely separated from the Asian pig population and appear to be genetically influenced by European and Iberian populations raised in Spain.
