COMPARISON STUDY OF THE GENETIC DIVERSITY OF NIGERIAN INDIGENOUS CATTLE BREEDS BASED ON VARIATION OF HAEMOGLOBIN AND TRANFERRIN POLYMORPHISM

Abstract

This study was undertaken to evaluate and compare the genetic diversities of some selected breeds of cattle (Sokoto Gudali, Red Bororo and White Fulani) using Transferrin and Haemoglobin. Blood samples were collected from 300 cattle comprising males and females of 100 Sokoto Gudali, 100 Red Bororo and 100 White Fulani inan heparinized bottle and the protein polymorphism was investigated using cellulose acetate electrophoresis. The observed allele frequencies and genotypes (%) were tested with Hardy-Weinberg’s Equilibrium (χ2), from the three breeds, only White Fulani was observed to be significant (p<0.05) while Sokoto Gudali and Red Bororo were not significant (p>0.05) Four alleles TfA, TfB, TfC and TfD controlling ninee genotypes were observed at the Transferrin locus while two Haemoglobin alleles (HbA and HbB) controlling three genotypes were observed in haemoglobin. The values for the observed heterozygosity in Sokoto Gudali, Red Bororo and White Fulani were 0.609, 0.527 and 0.678 respectively. The value of the expected heterozygosity for Sokoto Gudali, Red Bororo and White Fulani were 0.589, 0.557 and 0.573 respectively, while the gene diversity (D) for Sokoto Gudali, Red Bororo and White Fulani were 0.587, 0.557 and 0.569 respectively. The values of the examined fixation indices for FIS, FIT and FST were -0.029, 0.017 and -0.048 respectively. The Genetic distance estimate in this study ranged from 0.008-0.050. Using protein loci, the genetic distance indicated that the Red Bororo and White Fulani were the most genetically similar while Sokoto Gudali was farther from the two breeds indicating that Sokoto Gudali may have had different historical origins or prehistoric migration route.