Genetic variability in Bracco Italiano dog breed assessed by pedigree data

The Bracco Italiano is one of the oldest pointing dog breed, used for hunting ever since the Renaissance time. The complete electronic record of the breed was downloaded from the ENCI database [whole population (WP) = 24,613 animals registered since 1970 to 2011] with the aim to estimate genetic variability in Bracco Italiano dog breed using pedigree records. Up to 97% of the individuals had registered parents and 86% registered grand-fathers. Average generation interval was 4.68±0.545 for stallions and 4.08±0.321 year for dams. Reference population (RP) was defined as the population of interest that include living reproductive animals approaching the last three generations and include 9006 dogs of which 34% were inbreds. The number of ancestors was 564 in WP and 188 in RP, while the effective number of ancestors was 46 and 34 respectively. To explain 50% of the genetic variability, a total of 18 and 9 ancestors enough, respectively in the WP and RP. The average inbreeding coefficient in the RP resulted 6.7% while the average increase in inbreeding was estimated to be 1.29% (Ne=38.86). Nevertheless a regular monitoring of genetic variability of the population is important and must be adopted, in order to avoid the danger of an excessive increase of inbreeding in the future, which would result in significant inbreeding depression and in significant loss of genetic variation

Morphological traits and inbreeding depression in Bracco Italiano dog breed.

This paper reports the first results of a survey on morphological traits in Bracco Italiano dog breed, and analyzes the effects of various levels of inbreeding on these measures. Traits were taken from 155 adult (mean age 4.18±2.60 years) dogs (79 males and 76 females) belonging to 57 different farms. For each animal, the following biometrical measurements were considered: height at withers (WH), height of chest (ChH), body length (BL), length at rump (RL), height at rump (RH), iliac width of rump (RIlW), ischiatic width of rump (RIsW), circumference of chest (ChC), circumference of cannon (CaC), length of ear (EL), and length of head (HL). The ratio of rump length/withers height (RL/WH), cannon circumference/chest circumference (CaC/ChC) and head length/withers height (HL/WH) were also calculated. ANOVA was used to test the differences between males and females and among farms in terms of morphological measurements and ratios. Significant differences between males and females were observed for many morphological traits. The measures coincided with what reported in the current breed standard, apart from the length of the rump, which was around ¼ of the withers height rather than the 1/3 required in the standard. No significant effect of inbreeding on conformation traits was observed

Investigation on the genetic variability of the american pit bull terrier dogs belonging to an italian breeder using microsatellite markers and genealogical data

The genetic variability of 18 American Pit Bull Terriers bred in Italy was studied using 21 STR markers from the panels recommended for the 2006, 2008 and 2010 ISAG canine comparison test and the genealogical information. As expected, all statistical analysis showed a reduced genetic variability. It is there-fore recommended greater attention in the programming of mating with an increase of gene flow among farmers, which would reduce the average inbreeding in the population and increase genetic variability.Генетическая изменчивость 18 американских питбультерьеров, выведенных в Италии, была изучена с использованием 21 STR маркеров из панелей, рекомендованных Международной ассоциацией генетики животных (ISAG canine) (2006, 2008, 2010). Как и ожидалось, все статистические анализы подтвердили невысокую генетическую изменчивость. Поэтому желательно уделять больше внимания пла-нированию скрещиваний с увеличением потока генов, чтобы уменьшить средний инбридинг в популяции и увеличить генетическую изменчивость.Генетична мінливість 18 американських пітбультер’єрів, виведених в Італії, була вивчена з використанням 21 STR маркерів з панелей, рекомендованих Міжнародною асоціацією генетики тварин (ISAG canine) (2006,2008 і 2010). Як і очікувалося, всі статистичні аналізи підтвердили невисоку генетичну мінливість. Тому бажано приділяти більше уваги плануванню схрещувань із збільшенням потоку генів, щоб зменшити середній інбридинг в популяції і збільшити генетичну мінливість

Insights into genetic diversity, runs of homozygosity and heterozygosity-rich regions in maremmana semi-feral cattle using pedigree and genomic data

Semi-feral local livestock populations, like Maremmana cattle, are the object of renewed interest for the conservation of biological diversity and the preservation and exploitation of unique and potentially relevant genetic material. The aim of this study was to estimate genetic diversity parameters in semi-feral Maremmana cattle using both pedigree-and genomic-based approaches (FIS and FROH), and to detect regions of homozygosity (ROH) and heterozygosity (ROHet) in the genome. The average heterozygosity estimates were in the range reported for other cattle breeds (HE = 0.261, HO = 0.274). Pedigree-based average inbreeding (F) was estimated at 4.9%. The correlation was low between F and genomic-based approaches (r = 0.03 with FIS, r = 0.21 with FROH), while it was higher between FIS and FROH (r = 0.78). The low correlation between F and FROH coefficients may be the result of the limited pedigree depth available for the animals involved in this study. The ROH islands identified in Maremmana cattle included candidate genes associated with climate adaptation, carcass traits or the regulation of body weight, fat and energy metabolism. The ROHet islands contained candidate genes associated with nematode resistance and reproduction traits in livestock. The results of this study confirm that genome-based measures like FROH may be useful estimators of individual autozygosity, and may provide insights on pedigree-based inbreeding estimates in cases when animals’ pedigree data are unavailable, thus providing a more detailed picture of the genetic diversity

Demographic genetics of the endangered Amiata donkey breed

The demogenetic structure of the Amiata donkey, an endangered breed from Central Italy, was investigated using information from pedigrees. Genealogical data of 602 donkeys reared in Tuscany were recorded in a database and analysed by the computer package ENDOG. Population size increased from 89 subjects in 1995 to 503 (129 males and 374 females) in 2005. Animals were distributed among 152 herds, but the effective number of herds was 21, suggesting that a small number of herds provided stallions for the entire breed. The maximum number of traced generation was 4, the mean maximum generation was 1.14, the mean com- plete generation was 0.53, and the mean equivalent generation was 0.78. The average relatedness coeffi- cient (AR) in the 503 alive animals was 0.94% while the mean F was 0.29% so the effective population size was 172.41. Among 24 animals with a 4-generation history, 3 (12.5%) were 25% inbred. Although the incompleteness of genealogical information did not permit accurate inference of the current values of popu- lation genetic parameters, the present work represents a first step towards an efficient management of the breed

Molecular Coancestry and Classical Genetic Distances Depict Different Patterns of Relationship Among Sheep Breeds from Southern Italy

Several molecular-based parameters, such as similarity indexes, can be adopted to optimize the management of genetic diversity in conservation programmes. From simulated data, Oliehoek et al. (2006) showed that molecular coancestry (Toro et al., 2002) is, among the possible relatedness estimators, the one that performs better in structured populations, such as populations in need of conservation usually are. Several studies have, therefore, proposed the use of molecular coancestry coefficients as a measure of genetic variability and as a useful tool for conservation of endangered breeds (Ciampolini et al., 2007; Glowatzki-Mullis et al., 2009). Here we report the results obtained evaluating within- and between-breed molecular coancestry (Toro et al., 2002), together with other classical genetic parameters, for two insular sheep breeds (Sarda from Sardinia and Comisana from Sicily), recently spread almost all over Italy, and for five local rare sheep breeds from Southern Italy

Genome-Wide Analysis Reveals Selection Signatures Involved in Meat Traits and Local Adaptation in Semi-Feral Maremmana Cattle

The Maremmana cattle is an ancient Podolian-derived Italian breed raised in semi-wild conditions with distinctive morphological and adaptive traits. The aim of this study was to detect potential selection signatures in Maremmana using medium-density single nucleotide polymorphism array. Putative selection signatures were investigated combining three statistical approaches designed to quantify the excess of haplotype homozygosity either within (integrated haplotype score, iHS) or among pairs of populations (Rsb and XP-EHH), and contrasting the Maremmana with a single reference population composed of a pool of seven Podolian-derived Italian breeds. Overall, the three haplotype-based analyses revealed selection signatures distributed over 19 genomic regions. Of these, six relevant candidate regions were identified by at least two approaches. We found genomic signatures of selective sweeps spanning genes related to mitochondrial function, muscle development, growth, and meat traits (SCIN, THSD7A, ETV1, UCHL1, and MYOD1), which reflects the different breeding schemes between Maremmana (semi-wild conditions) and the other Podolian-derived Italian breeds (semi-extensive). We also identified several genes linked to Maremmana adaptation to the environment of the western-central part of Italy, known to be hyperendemic for malaria and other tick-borne diseases. These include several chemokine (C-C motif) ligand genes crucially involved in both innate and adaptive immune responses to intracellular parasite infections and other genes playing key roles in pulmonary disease (HEATR9, MMP28, and ASIC2) or strongly associated with malaria resistance/susceptibility (AP2B1). Our results provide a glimpse into diverse selection signatures in Maremmana cattle and can be used to enhance our understanding of the genomic basis of environmental adaptation in cattle

An unsupervised behavioral modeling and alerting system based on passive sensing for elderly care

Artificial Intelligence in combination with the Internet of Medical Things enables remote healthcare services through networks of environmental and/or personal sensors. We present a remote healthcare service system which collects real-life data through an environmental sensor package, including binary motion, contact, pressure, and proximity sensors, installed at households of elderly people. Its aim is to keep the caregivers informed of subjects’ health-status progressive trajectory, and alert them of health-related anomalies to enable objective on-demand healthcare service delivery at scale. The system was deployed in 19 households inhabited by an elderly person with post-stroke condition in the Emilia–Romagna region in Italy, with maximal and median observation durations of 98 and 55 weeks. Among these households, 17 were multi-occupancy residences, while the other 2 housed elderly patients living alone. Subjects’ daily behavioral diaries were extracted and registered from raw sensor signals, using rule-based data pre-processing and unsupervised algorithms. Personal behavioral habits were identified and compared to typical patterns reported in behavioral science, as a quality-of-life indicator. We consider the activity patterns extracted across all users as a dictionary, and represent each patient’s behavior as a ‘Bag of Words’, based on which patients can be categorized into sub-groups for precision cohort treatment. Longitudinal trends of the behavioral progressive trajectory and sudden abnormalities of a patient were detected and reported to care providers. Due to the sparse sensor setting and the multi-occupancy living condition, the sleep profile was used as the main indicator in our system. Experimental results demonstrate the ability to report on subjects’ daily activity pattern in terms of sleep, outing, visiting, and health-status trajectories, as well as predicting/detecting 75% hospitalization sessions up to 11 days in advance. 65% of the alerts were confirmed to be semantically meaningful by the users. Furthermore, reduced social interaction (outing and visiting), and lower sleep quality could be observed during the COVID-19 lockdown period across the cohort

Haplotype association analysis of meat quality traits at the bovine PRKAG3 locus

The current study presents the results of a preliminary haplotype association analysis at the bovine PRKAG3 locus with meat quality traits in the Chianina breed. No significant association was shown between haploid haplotypes (or diplotypes) and phenotypical traits after applying a Bonferroni correction for multiple comparison. Nonetheless, data from Longissimus dorsi muscle suggest the presence of a statistically non-significant trend toward an influence of the PRKAG3 haploid haplotypes on meat colour (a*) and water holding capacity (M/T) traits, as confirmed also by diplotype-based association analysis. A less clear set of results was observed for the Triceps brachii and Semitendinosus muscles