Feed intake, milk composition and cheesemaking properties in Girgentana grazing goats with different genotype at αs1-casein and K-casein

Milk ability for cheese manufacturing depends on both animals utilization of dietary nutrients and genetic polymorphism of caseins. It is well known that strong alleles associated with high content of as1-casein increase cheese-making properties of goat milk, whereas there is little information about effect of genetic variants of κ-casein. The aim of this experiment was to investigate the effect of some composite as1-casein and κ-casein genotypes n changing feeding behavior at pasture and milk yield and properties of Girgentana goats. Forty goats were genotyped at as1, as2, b and κ-casein loci using specific PCR protocols at DNA level and IEF technique at milk protein level. Twelve goats, d…

Variance component estimation for SCS in different local breeds and species

Application of SNP reduction approaches and random forest for the identification of population informative markers in cosmopolitan and local cattle breeds

In livestock, single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping arrays have been used to differentiate breeds and populations for several downstream applications, including breed allocation of individuals, breeds of origin of crossbred animals, authentication of mono breed products, comparative analyses of selection signatures among several other uses. We already tested a combination of principal component analysis (PCA), used as preselection method, and random forest (RF) used as classification method to assign cosmopolitan Italian breeds with no or very low error rate. In this work, we increased the number of breeds and approaches, to have a more comprehensive view of the strategies available and…

A genome-wide perspective on the population structure of Italian cattle breeds

Despite the growing diffusion of cosmopolite specialized breeds, several autochthonous cattle breeds and populations are still bred in Italy. The aim of this study was to provide a high-resolution picture of the genome-wide diversity and population structure of Italian local cattle breeds using medium-density genome-wide SNP markers. After data editing, the dataset included 800 samples from 32 breeds that were genotyped for 31 013 SNPs. For several breeds we observed a low level of polymorphism and genetic diversity, that together with the small effective population sizes confirmed threat of extinction. According to the runs of homozygosity analysis, evidence of recent inbreeding was strong…

BOVITA: a first overview on genome-wide genetic diversity of Italian autochthonous cattle breeds

Analysis of genomic data is increasingly becoming part of the livestock industry and is an invaluable resource for effective management of breeding programs in small populations. The recent availability of genome-wide SNP panels allows providing background information concerning genome structure in domestic animals, opening new perspectives to livestock genetics. BOVITA was established to join local efforts and resources for the genomic characterization of Italian local cattle breeds. Despite the growing diffusion of some cosmopolite specialized breeds, several autochthonous breeds are still bred in Italy. The main aim of the BOVITA is to investigate the genomic structure of Italian local c…