Livestock Studies 1999, Vol 39, Num, 1     (Pages: 017-032)

Genetic Relationships Among Cattle Breeds in Turkey

Ceyhan ÖZBEYAZ 1 ,Mehmet Ali YILDIZ 2 ,Handan ÇAMDEVİREN 3

1 Ankara Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Zootekni Anabilim Dalı – ANKARA
2 Selçuk Üniversitesi Ziraat Fakültesi Zootekni Anabilim Dalı – KONYA
3 Ankara Üniversitesi Ziraat Fakültesi Zootekni Anabilim Dalı – ANKARA
- Fixation index, average heterozygosity and genetic distances were estimated among cattle breeds in Turkey by using biochemical polymorphism (Hb, Pa, Am-I and Tf).

Fixation indexes in each locus were different among breeds.

Average heterozygosity (H) were 0.387±0.130 – 0.512±0.076 in native populations and 0.327±0.154 – 0.439±0.058 in culture populations. Between the differences of the estimated values of average heterozygosity was not significant.

Genetic distance (dij) were calculated as 0.006 to 0.090 among native breeds, 0.050 to 0.128 among culture, breeds and 0.032 to 0.170 between native and culture breeds.

Three main clusters were determined by cluster analysis (UPGMA). South-eastern Anatolian Red and Jersey breeds which was very far between each other were constituted two different main cluster. In the other main cluster, there was three subgroups which were made up by Holstein-Friesian, Brown Swiss and native breeds except South-eastern Anatolian Red. These main groups were taken part in between Jersey and South-eastern Anatolian Red groups.

For the respect of the studied loci, it was found that Jersey and South-eastern Anatolian Red populations had very different genetic structures than the others. Grey Steppe, Native Black and East Anatolian Red were very similar between each others. Those native breeds were more closely related to Brown Swiss than the Holstein-Friesian breed. It was concluded that cluster analysis was a very useful method for classification of the cattle breeds. Keywords : Native Cattle, Fixation İndex, Average Heterozygosity, Genetic Distance, Cluster Analysis