Scholarly record

THE ANALYSIS OF SCRAPIE GENOTYPE OF THE GENETIC RESOURCES OF LATVIAN DARK HEAD BREED

D. Bārzdiņa, D. Kairiša

Abstract

The desire of modern society to live more and more prosperously contributes to the extinction of less productive animal species. The most commercially viable varieties are increasingly being used, thus endangering the conservation of genetic diversity. One of the preconditions for the conservation of farm animal genetic resources is the development and implementation of conservation programs for local breeds so that they can be used and improved, thus contributing to global food security and their conservation for future generations [14]. In Latvia, an old-type conservation program for the Latvian Dark Headed sheep breed is being implemented. The aim of the conservation program is to increase the number of old-type sheep of the Latvian Dark Headed breed, to preserve the genetic potential and diversity of the breed. Association “The Latvian Association of Sheep Breeders'' in cooperation with German partner EUROFINS Medigenmix laboratory and Institute of Food safety, Animal Health and Environment "BIOR" in Latvia from 2013 to 2019 basing on blood samples, determined genotypes of scrapie for 806 the Latvian Dark Headed ewes who all included in the Genetic Resources Conservation program in Latvia. Ewes born in the period from 2013 to 2019, which were included in the study, were now divided into R2 risk group - 43% or 354 ewes, 41% or 327 ewes were assigned to R1 risk group, and 124 ewes were only assigned into R3 risk group which accounted for 15%, and 1% of ewes were divided to the R5 scrapie risk group. Animals with undesirable genotype R4 were not found in the research. This can be explained by the choice of successful selection in Latvia, where only resistant scrapie genotypes are used for breeding.

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