Microsatellite diversity of the Nordic type of goats in relation to breed conservation: how relevant is pure ancestry?

In the last decades, several endangered breeds of livestock species have been re-established effectively. However, the successful revival of the Dutch and Danish Landrace goats involved crossing with exotic breeds and the ancestry of the current populations is therefore not clear. We have generated genotypes for 27 FAO-recommended microsatellites of these landraces and three phenotypically similar Nordic-type landraces and compared these breeds with central European, Mediterranean and south-west Asian goats. We found decreasing levels of genetic diversity with increasing distance from the south-west Asian domestication site with a south-east-to-north-west cline that is clearly steeper than the Mediterranean east-to-west cline. In terms of genetic diversity, the Dutch Landrace comes next to the isolated Icelandic breed, which has an extremely low diversity. The Norwegian coastal goat and the Finnish and Icelandic landraces are clearly related. It appears that by a combination of mixed origin and a population bottleneck, the Dutch and Danish Land-races are separated from the other breeds. However, the current Dutch and Danish populations with the multicoloured and long-horned appearance effectively substitute for the original breed, illustrating that for conservation of cultural heritage, the phenotype of a breed is more relevant than pure ancestry and the genetic diversity of the original breed. More in general, we propose that for conservation, the retention of genetic diversity of an original breed and of the visual phenotype by which the breed is recognized and defined needs to be considered separately

Evidence of major gene(s) affecting milk traits in the Chios sheep breed

This study investigates the mode of inheritance and estimates the genetic parameters of milk yield, milk fat content, and litter weight at birth in Chios sheep breed. A complex pedigree and repeated records for milk and fat content as well as litter weight from two distinct and unrelated populations, spanning over 20 and 31 years, were used for the detection of a major gene for milk yield in the Chios breed. The data originated from a closed nucleus in Northern Greece (6021 repeated records) and from a closed nucleus in Cyprus (6965 repeated records). The genetic parameters were estimated using both a polygenic model with maximum likelihood methodology and a mixed inheritance model (polygenes + major gene), using Bayesian segregation analysis. Segregation analysis results support the presence of a major gene for milk yield segregating in both populations. The mixed inheritance model for milk yield appears to be the most suitable model. The estimated additive effect of the putative major gene was 11% and 10.5% of the total additive genetic variance in the Cypriot and Greek populations, respectively, while the estimated dominance effect was negative in both populations. Although there are some indications for a major gene affecting fat content in Chios breed, there is no evidence for the presence of a major gene affecting litter weight at birth in either populatio

The effect of physiotherapy and acupuncture on psychocognitive, somatic, quality of life, and disability characteristics in TTH patients

Introduction Nonpharmacological therapies have been widely used to treat tension-type headache (TTH); however, limited evidence exists with regards to their effectiveness. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine the combined effect of acupuncture, stretching, and physiotherapy (myofascial release techniques and microwave diathermy) on psychocognitive, somatic, quality of life, and disability characteristics in such patients. Subjects and methods Patients with TTH (n=44) performed either acupuncture or stretching (control group, n=20) or acupuncture, stretching, and physiotherapy (experimental group, n=24) during a 4-week intervention period including 10 treatment sessions. They were tested for the Greek version of the Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire, the Greek version of the Migraine Disability Assessment Questionnaire, the Greek version of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Short Form Health Survey 12 9 (SF-12), and Pain Catastrophizing Scale at baseline after the fifth and tenth sessions. Results All measures were improved throughout the first to tenth session (0.05). Conclusion In summary, a significant beneficial role of acupuncture, stretching, and physiotherapy on cognitive, psychosomatic pain measures, disability index, quality of life, and catastrophizing in patients with TTH was observed

SUBSIBREED : overview and assessment of support measures for endangered livestock breeds : final project report

Edited by Drago Kompan, Marija Klopčič, Elżbieta Martyniu

Geographical contrasts of Y‐chromosomal haplogroups from wild and domestic goats reveal ancient migrations and recent introgressions

International audienceBy their paternal transmission, Y-chromosomal haplotypes are sensitive markers of population history and male-mediated introgression. Previous studies identified biallelic single-nucleotide variants in the SRY, ZFY and DDX3Y genes, which in domestic goats identified four major Y-chromosomal haplotypes, Y1A, Y1B, Y2A and Y2B, with a marked geographical partitioning. Here, we extracted goat Y-chromosomal variants from whole-genome sequences of 386 domestic goats (75 breeds) and seven wild goat species, which were generated by the VarGoats goat genome project. Phylogenetic analyses indicated domestic haplogroups corresponding to Y1B, Y2A and Y2B, respectively, whereas Y1A is split into Y1AA and Y1AB. All five haplogroups were detected in 26 ancient DNA samples from southeast Europe or Asia. Haplotypes from present-day bezoars are not shared with domestic goats and are attached to deep nodes of the trees and networks. Haplogroup distributions for 186 domestic breeds indicate ancient paternal population bottlenecks and expansions during migrations into northern Europe, eastern and southern Asia, and Africa south of the Sahara. In addition, sharing of haplogroups indicates male-mediated introgressions, most notably an early gene flow from Asian goats into Madagascar and the crossbreeding that in the 19th century resulted in the popular Boer and Anglo-Nubian breeds. More recent introgressions are those from European goats into the native Korean goat population and from Boer goat into Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and Zimbabwe. This study illustrates the power of the Y-chromosomal variants for reconstructing the history of domestic species with a wide geographical range