Genetic characterization of four Algerian cattle breeds using microsatellite markers.

Cattle plays a very important role in agriculture and food security in Algeria. In the present study, the genetic diversity and structure of Algerian indigenous cattle populations were evaluated by microsatellite markers. A total of 138 individuals belonging to four cattle breed populations were characterized using 22 microsatellite markers. A total of 360 alleles was detected across studied all loci. Results obtained for the mean number of alleles (16.36), expected heterozygosity (0.84) and polymorphic information content (0.82) indicated that the total analyzed populations are characterized by noticeable genetic variability. It can be said that there is a low genetic differentiation in the cattle populations studied considering obtained mean FST value (0.039). It was revealed 97.10% of the total genetic variation can be explained by genetic differences among individuals while 2.90% among populations. The structure, factorial correspondence analysis results and dendrogram showed that cattle populations studied are clustered in three groups. The present study has revealed an important knowledge about the genetic diversity and the relationship between some native cattle breeds raised in Algeria. The results showed that the breeds studied have a high genetic diversity. Moreover, it can be said that microsatellite markers used can be successfully used to determine genetic diversity and population structure in Algerian cattle breeds.

Morphometric characterization and estimating body weight of two Algerian camel breeds using morphometric measurements.

This study was carried out in order to identify the body measurements of two different Dromedary camel breeds raised in Algeria. The animal material of the study consisted of a total of 115 animals belong to Steppe (n = 55) and Sahraoui (n = 60) camel breeds. Eye and coat colors along with body measurements such as head length, neck length, neck girth, tail length, distance between eyes, distance between ears, body length, withers height, chest girth, and live weight were determined. Least squares means for head length, neck length, neck girth, tail length, distance between eyes, distance between ears, body length, withers height, chest girth, and live weight are found 48.2, 116.9, 65.7, 55.6, 24.1, 22.5, 152.2, 184.5, 141.2 cm, and 217.2 kg for Steppe and 48.1, 101.2, 56.2, 51.2, 23.4, 18.3, 135.6, 167.3, 176.8 cm, and 298.9 kg for Sahraoui camel breeds, respectively. The distribution of brown and black eye colors for the Steppe camel breed is as 58.2% and 41.8%, respectively, while all of the Sahraoui camels studied had a brown eye color. The proportional distribution in terms of body color included are coffee, dark coffee, and red colors for 1.8%, 83.6%, and 14.6% in the Steppe camel and 98.3%, 1.7%, and 0.0% for the Sahraoui camel, respectively. As a result, this study concluded that the withers height and chest girth could estimate the body weight in the two breeds of camels with different ages.

Bayesian inference of genetic parameters for ultrasound scanning traits of Kivircik lambs.

Ultrasound scanning traits have been adapted in selection programs in many countries to improve carcass traits for lean meat production. As the genetic parameters of the traits interested are important for breeding programs, the estimation of these parameters was aimed at the present investigation. The estimated parameters were direct and maternal heritability as well as genetic correlations between the studied traits. The traits were backfat thickness (BFT), skin+backfat thickness (SBFT), eye muscle depth (MD) and live weights at the day of scanning (LW). The breed investigated was Kivircik, which has a high quality of meat. Six different multi-trait animal models were fitted to determine the most suitable model for the data using Bayesian approach. Based on deviance information criterion, a model that includes direct additive genetic effects, maternal additive genetic effects, direct maternal genetic covariance and maternal permanent environmental effects revealed to be the most appropriate for the data, and therefore, inferences were built on the results of that model. The direct heritability estimates for BFT, SBFT, MD and LW were 0.26, 0.26, 0.23 and 0.09, whereas the maternal heritability estimates were 0.27, 0.27, 0.24 and 0.20, respectively. Negative genetic correlations were obtained between direct and maternal effects for BFT, SBFT and MD. Both direct and maternal genetic correlations between traits were favorable, whereas BFT-MD and SBFT-MD had negligible direct genetic correlation. The highest direct and maternal genetic correlations were between BFT and SBFT (0.39) and between MD and LW (0.48), respectively. Our results, in general, indicated that maternal effects should be accounted for in estimation of genetic parameters of ultrasound scanning traits in Kivircik lambs, and SBFT can be used as a selection criterion to improve BFT.