Heritability in horses refers to the proportion of observable variation in traits among individuals that can be attributed to genetic factors. It is a key concept in understanding how traits such as height, coat color, speed, and temperament are passed from one generation to the next. Heritability estimates help in predicting the potential for selective breeding and the likelihood of certain traits being expressed in offspring. These estimates are calculated using statistical methods that analyze the resemblance between relatives. This page aggregates peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the genetic basis of heritable traits in horses, the methodologies for estimating heritability, and the implications for equine breeding and management practices.
Negro Rama S, Valera M, Membrillo A, Gómez MD, Solé M, Menendez-Buxadera A, Anaya G, Molina A.The association of five candidate genes with sporting performance in young and adult Spanish Trotter horses (STHs) was performed according to a previous selection based on quantitative analysis of the trait time per kilometre (TPK). A total of 334 516 records of TPK from 5958 STHs were used to estimate the estimated breeding values (EBVs) at different age groups (young and adults horses) throughout the range of distances (1600-2700 m) using a bicharacter random regression model. The heritability estimated by distance ranged from 0.16 to 0.40, with a different range for the two age groups. Co...
Frischknecht M, Flury C, Leeb T, Rieder S, Neuditschko M.Shetland ponies were selected for numerous traits including small stature, strength, hardiness and longevity. Despite the different selection criteria, Shetland ponies are well known for their small stature. We performed a selection signature analysis including genome-wide SNPs of 75 Shetland ponies and 76 large-sized horses. Based upon this dataset, we identified a selection signature on equine chromosome (ECA) 1 between 103.8 Mb and 108.5 Mb. A total of 33 annotated genes are located within this interval including the IGF1R gene at 104.2 Mb and the ADAMTS17 gene at 105.4 Mb. These two ge...
Lauper M, Gerber V, Ramseyer A, Burger D, Lüth A, Koch C, Dolf G.There is a lack of evidence regarding genetic parameters of health traits in Swiss Warmblood horses. Objective: To estimate heritabilities of equine sarcoid disease, horn quality of hooves, prognathism and increased filling of talocrural joints as a possible indicator for osteochondrosis in Swiss Warmblood horses examined at the field tests for 3-year-olds between 2005 and 2013. Methods: Retrospective analysis of breed society database. Methods: Swiss Warmblood horses were examined clinically by 13 veterinarians at field tests in Switzerland between 2005 and 2013. The presence of sarcoids, hor...
Frischknecht M, Jagannathan V, Plattet P, Neuditschko M, Signer-Hasler H, Bachmann I, Pacholewska A, Drögemüller C, Dietschi E, Flury C, Rieder S....The identification of quantitative trait loci (QTL) such as height and their underlying causative variants is still challenging and often requires large sample sizes. In humans hundreds of loci with small effects control the heritable portion of height variability. In domestic animals, typically only a few loci with comparatively large effects explain a major fraction of the heritability. We investigated height at withers in Shetland ponies and mapped a QTL to ECA 6 by genome-wide association (GWAS) using a small cohort of only 48 animals and the Illumina equine SNP70 BeadChip. Fine-mapping re...
Peeters LM, Janssens S, Brebels M, Buys N.Genetic factors involved in susceptibility to insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) in Belgian Warmblood horses (BWP) were investigated. Data relating to 3409 horses were collected using a questionnaire, administered to owners during sport competitions, BWP breeding days, breeder visits and after phone calls. Horses were classified as IBH-affected or unaffected, based on two 'disease classifiers': a lifetime record, based on owner information (life_status) and another based on whether or not the horse was showing clinical signs at the time of questioning (clin_status). IBH prevalence was 10% base...
He S, Zhang L, Li W, Liu M.Recently, a SNP (BIEC2-808543) was demonstrated to be associated with equine body size in horses. In this study, we genotyped BIEC2-808543 SNPs in 314 Yili horses in order to evaluate the association between genotype and body composition traits, such as body weight, withers height, chest circumference, and cannon circumference. Results indicate significant associations between polymorphisms of this SNP and body conformation in Yili horse populations. Based on these results, we hypothesize that BIEC2-808543 is strongly related to body conformation of Yili horses and has the potential to be used...
Sharman P, Wilson AJ.Previous studies have concluded that thoroughbred racehorse speed is improving very slowly, if at all, despite heritable variation for performance and putatively intensive selective breeding. This has led to the suggestion that racehorses have reached a selection limit. However, previous studies have been limited, focusing only on the winning times of a few elite races run over middle and long distances, and failing to account for potentially confounding factors. Using a much larger dataset covering the full range of race distances and accounting for variation in factors such as ground softnes...
Próchniak T, Rozempolska-Rucińska I, Zięba G, Łukaszewicz M.The aim of the study was to select traits that may constitute a prospective criterion for breeding value prediction of young horses. The results of 1,232 starts of 894 four-, five-, six-, and seven-year-old horses, obtained during jumping championships for young horses which had not been evaluated in, alternative to championships, training centres were analyed. Nine traits were chosen of those recorded: ranking in the championship, elimination (y/n), conformation, rating of style on day one, two, and three, and penalty points on day one, two, and three of a championship. (Co)variance component...
Shrestha M, Eriksson S, Schurink A, Andersson LS, Sundquist M, Frey R, Broström H, Bergström T, Ducro B, Lindgren G.Insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) is the most common allergic skin disease in horses and is caused by biting midges, mainly of the genus Culicoides. The disease predominantly comprises a type I hypersensitivity reaction, causing severe itching and discomfort that reduce the welfare and commercial value of the horse. It is a multifactorial disorder influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, with heritability ranging from 0.16 to 0.27 in various horse breeds. The worldwide prevalence in different horse breeds ranges from 3% to 60%; it is more than 50% in Icelandic horses exported to ...
Rovere G, Madsen P, Norberg E, van Arendonk JA, Ducro BJ.Recent studies on data from the Dutch Warmblood Studbook (KWPN) have shown that the ongoing specialization of horses for either dressage (DH) or show jumping (JH) has led to a decreasing genetic relationship between the two subpopulations. The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of the specialization process on the genetic parameters of traits measured in the studbook-entry inspection of KWPN during the last fifteen years. Data from 18,125 DH and 23,800 JH recorded from 1998 until 2013 were used to analyse 13 traits scored in both DH and JH. Analyses were performed in a Bayesian framew...
Velie BD, Hamilton NA, Wade CM.Many attempts have been made to improve the well-being of racing Thoroughbreds through improvements in management and veterinary care. However, these attempts are often limited by the industry's ability to regulate a large number of environmental variables and as a result have arguably had limited success in providing long-lasting change for the breed. Objective: To identify heritable durability traits for Thoroughbred horses racing in Australia and Hong Kong. Methods: Heritability analysis of a longitudinal dataset. Methods: Performance data on the Thoroughbred populations racing in Australia...
Lin X, Zhou S, Wen L, Davie A, Yao X, Liu W, Zhang Y.Many studies have focused on identifying the genes or single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with the athletic ability of thoroughbreds, but few have considered differences in maternal and paternal heritability of athletic ability. Herein, we report on our association study of career race performances of 675 Australian thoroughbreds with their pedigrees. Racing performance data (prize money per start) were collected from the Bloodhound database. The performance of all horses was categorised as either poor or elite athletic achievement. Then, 675 foals were divided by their parents' perform...
Ricard A.Recently, a mutation was discovered in the DMRT3 gene that controls pacing in horses. The mutant allele A is fixed in the American Standardbred trotter breed, while in the French trotter breed, the frequency of the wild-type allele C is still 24%. This study aimed at measuring the effect of DMRT3 genotypes on the performance of French trotters and explaining why the polymorphism still occurs in this breed. Using a mixed animal model, genetic parameters and environmental effects on performance traits were estimated from data on 173 176 French trotter races. The effect of the DMRT3 gene was then...
Viklund Å, Furre S, Eriksson S, Vangen O, Philipsson J.Breeding programmes for warmblood sport horses are similar in the Nordic countries Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway, and stallions of same origin are used. The aim was to investigate whether a joint Nordic genetic evaluation based on lifetime competition performance is feasible and beneficial for breeding competitive sport horses in the Nordic countries. Results for almost 45,000 horses in show jumping and 30,000 horses in dressage were available. The larger populations in Sweden and Denmark contributed with 85% of the results. Heritabilities and genetic correlations between performances in...
Kornaś S, Sallé G, Skalska M, David I, Ricard A, Cabaret J.Equine internal parasites, mostly cyathostomins, affect both horse welfare and performance. The appearance of anthelmintic-resistant parasites creates a pressing need for optimising drenching schemes. This optimization may be achieved by identifying genetic markers associated with host susceptibility to infection and then to drench carriers of these markers. The aim of our study was to characterise the genetics of horse resistance to strongyle infection by estimating heritability of this trait in an Arabian pure blood population. A population of 789 Arabian pure blood horses from the Michałó...
Velie BD, Hamilton NA, Wade CM.Performance data for 164,046 Thoroughbreds entered in a race or official barrier trial in Australia were provided by Racing Information Services Australia. Analyses estimating the heritability for a range of racing performance traits using a single-trait animal model were performed using ASREML-R. Log of cumulative earnings (LCE; 0.19 ± 0.01), log of earnings per race start (0.23 ± 0.02) and best race distance (0.61 ± 0.03) were all significantly heritable. Fixed effects for sex were significant (P < 0.001) for all performance traits aside from LCE (P = 0.382). With the exception of annual ...
Ploeg M, Gröne A, Saey V, de Bruijn CM, Back W, van Weeren PR, Scheideman W, Picavet T, Ducro BJ, Wijnberg I, Delesalle C.Megaesophagus appears to be more common in Friesian horses than in other breeds. A prevalence of approximately 2% was observed among Friesian horses presented to the Wolvega Equine Clinic and the Utrecht University Equine Clinic. In this study, morphologic changes in the esophagi of Friesian horses with megaesophagus were compared with those of 6 control horses. Of 18 horses with clinically observed megaesophagus, only 12 animals had esophageal dilation at necropsy, usually involving the thoracic portion. Muscular hypertrophy of the distal esophagus was present in only one-third of the affecte...
Badial PR, Cisneros-Àlvarez LE, Brandão CV, Ranzani JJ, Tomaz MA, Machado VM, Borges AS.The aim of this study was to compare ocular dimensions, corneal curvature, and corneal thickness between horses affected with hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia (HERDA) and unaffected horses. Methods: Five HERDA-affected quarter horses and five healthy control quarter horses were used. Methods: Schirmer's tear test, tonometry, and corneal diameter measurements were performed in both eyes of all horses prior to ophthalmologic examinations. Ultrasonic pachymetry was performed to measure the central, temporal, nasal, dorsal, and ventral corneal thicknesses in all horses. B-mode ultrasound...
Lassaline M, Cranford TL, Latimer CA, Bellone RR.To describe the prevalence of LSCC in Haflinger horses and to analyze affected horses' pedigrees investigating the genetic mode of inheritance. Methods: Fifteen horses met inclusion criterion of (i) being of the Haflinger breed, as confirmed by North American Haflinger Registry pedigree and (ii) being diagnosed with LSCC, as confirmed by clinical examination by a veterinary ophthalmologist or by histopathology. Pedigrees could not be obtained for four additional horses diagnosed with LSCC that had been identified as Haflingers. Methods: Retrospective medical record review of all 19 horses was ...
Mickelson JR, Valberg SJ.Horses are remarkable athletes and a fascinating species in which to study the genetic bases of athletic performance, skeletal muscle biology, and neuromuscular disease. Genetic selection in horses has resulted in many breeds that possess anatomical, physiological, and metabolic variations linked to speed, power, and endurance that are beginning to be defined at the molecular level. Along with the concentration of positive traits, equine breeding programs have also inadvertently concentrated heritable muscle diseases for which mutations impacting electrical conduction, muscle contraction, and ...
Gómez MD, Menéndez-Buxadera A, Valera M, Molina A.The performance results of Spanish Trotter Horses were merged with the information from the nearest official weather stations, to estimate the effects of temperature (T) on speed during the day of the race. The resulting data set included: 104 125 individual results from 7653 races with 3772 participant horses and driven by 1402 jockeys. After a classical repeatability animal model in which the effects of T were assumed null, a total of five different random regression models (RRM) with the same fixed part were applied in a parsimonious nested process in which the (co)variance components for ...
Silva AP, Curi RA, Langlois B, Silva JA.In this study, we estimated the heritability (h(2)) of earnings in the Quarter Horse in order to evaluate the inclusion of this trait in breeding programs. Records from 14,754 races of 2443 horses from 1978-2009 were provided by Sorocaba Hippodrome, São Paulo, Brazil. All ancestors of the registered horses were included in the pedigree file until the 4th generation. Log-transformed performance measures (LPM) were analyzed for animals aged 2, 3, and 4 years and during their entire career. The h(2) estimates were obtained using a multi-trait model and Gibbs sampling that included the effects of...
Posta J, Rudiné Mezei A, Mihók S, Mészáros G.The aim of this study was to analyse the duration of the competitive life of jumping horses in Hungary to assess the potential for genetic evaluation and to get information about the risk factors affecting jumping performance of sport horses. The data set included lifetime performance in jumping competitions for 8475 horses born from 1992 onwards with records between 1996 and 2011 (32.7% were right-censored). Longevity was measured as the number of years spent in the competition. Discrete time survival model included fixed effects of gender, age at first competition, and the time-dependent eff...
Badial PR, Oliveira-Filho JP, Pantoja JC, Moreira JC, Conceição LG, Borges AS.Hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia (HERDA) is an autosomal recessive disorder affecting quarter horses (QHs); affected horses exhibit characteristic skin abnormalities related to abnormal collagen biosynthesis. Objective: To characterize the thickness and morphological abnormalities of the skin of HERDA-affected horses and to determine the interobserver agreement and the diagnostic accuracy of histopathological examination of skin biopsies from horses with HERDA. Methods: Six affected QHs, confirmed by DNA testing, from a research herd and five unaffected QHs from a stud farm. Methods:...
Velie BD, Raadsma HW, Wade CM, Knight PK, Hamilton NA.Post exercise epistaxis, the manifestation of a severe form of exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage (EIPH), has been observed in many equine racing populations. Although multiple analyses have suggested that non-genetic factors may lead to the development of this condition, relatively little consensus has been reached regarding its genetic aetiology. The objective of this study was to provide insight into both genetic and non-genetic factors that may contribute to the expression of epistaxis in the Australian Thoroughbred racing population. Racing records and reported epistaxis occurrences w...
Labitzke D, Sieme H, Martinsson G, Distl O.The objectives of this study were to show whether semen traits of 30 Hanoverian stallions regularly used in AI may be useful for breeding purposes. Semen characteristics were studied using 15 149 ejaculates from 30 Hanoverian stallions of the State Stud Celle of Lower Saxony. Semen samples were collected between 2005 and 2009. Traits analysed were gel-free volume, sperm concentration, total and motile sperm number and progressive motility. A linear multivariate animal model was employed to estimate heritabilities and permanent environmental variances for stallions. The same model was used to p...
Gerber V, Tessier C, Marti E.Genetic predispositions for guttural pouch tympany, recurrent laryngeal neuropathy and recurrent airway obstruction (RAO) are well documented. There is also evidence that exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage and infectious diseases of the respiratory tract in horses have a genetic component. The clinical expression of equine respiratory diseases with a genetic basis results from complex interactions between the environment and the genetic make-up of each individual horse. The genetic effects are likely to be due to variations in several genes, i.e. they are polygenic. It is therefore unlikel...
Physick-Sheard P, Kraus M, Basrur P, McGurrin K, Kenney D, Schenkel F.To assess evidence for genetic contributions to atrial fibrillation (AF) in the Standardbred horse. Methods: Equine referrals to the Ontario Veterinary College Health Sciences Centre (OVCHSC) for 1985-2009, and age and gait matched breed registry controls. Methods: Breeds presenting ≥ 5 times annually were tabulated (admission year and diagnosis; total 40,039; AF 396; no AF 39,643), and breed and year effects examined. Heritability and inbreeding coefficients were determined for Standardbred AF cases and racing contemporaries, and odds ratios for AF were calculated for frequently occurring s...
Boyko AR, Brooks SA, Behan-Braman A, Castelhano M, Corey E, Oliveira KC, Swinburne JE, Todhunter RJ, Zhang Z, Ainsworth DM, Robinson NE.Equine recurrent laryngeal neuropathy (RLN) is a bilateral mononeuropathy with an unknown pathogenesis that significantly affects performance in Thoroughbreds. A genetic contribution to the pathogenesis of RLN is suggested by the higher prevalence of the condition in offspring of RLN-affected than unaffected stallions. To better understand RLN pathogenesis and its genetic basis, we performed a genome-wide association (GWAS) of 282 RLN-affected and 268 control Thoroughbreds. Results: We found a significant association of RLN with the LCORL/NCAPG locus on ECA3 previously shown to affect body siz...
Velie BD, Hamilton NA, Wade CM.Different indicators of racing performance are commonly used in the racing industry to assess the genetic superiority of racing Thoroughbreds. However, how well these indicators predict the performance of future progeny or siblings varies depending on the population and circumstances in which the indicators were recorded or achieved. Objective: To identify heritable indicators of racing performance for horses racing in Hong Kong. Methods: Heritability analysis of racing performance traits. Methods: Performance data on the population of Thoroughbreds racing in Hong Kong between 3 September 2000...
Dranchak PK, Valberg SJ, Onan GW, Gallant EM, Binns MM, Swinburne JE, Mickelson JR.To determine whether there was genetic linkage between the recurrent exertional rhabdomyolysis (RER) trait in Thoroughbred horse pedigrees and DNA markers in genes (the sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium release channel [RYR1] gene, the sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase [ATP2A1] gene, and the transverse tubule dihydropyridine receptor-voltage sensor [CACNA1S] gene) that are important in myoplasmic calcium regulation. Methods: 34 horses in the University of Minnesota RER resource herd and 62 Thoroughbreds from 3 families of Thoroughbreds outside of the university in which RER-affected status wa...
Schurink A, van Grevenhof EM, Ducro BJ, van Arendonk JA.Insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) is a seasonal recurrent allergic reaction of horses to the bites of certain Culicoides spp. and is found throughout the world. The aim of our study was to estimate the heritability and repeatability of IBH in the Dutch Shetland pony population. A total of 7,924 IBH scores on 6,073 mares were collected during foal inspections in 2003, 2005, and 2006. Mares were scored for clinical symptoms of IBH from June until February by 16 inspectors. Of all mares, 74.4% (n = 4,520) had a single observation, 20.7% (n = 1,255) had 2 observations, and 4.9% (n = 298) had 3 ob...
Haberland AM, König von Borstel U, Simianer H, König S.Reliable selection criteria are required for young riding horses to increase genetic gain by increasing accuracy of selection and decreasing generation intervals. In this study, selection strategies incorporating genomic breeding values (GEBVs) were evaluated. Relevant stages of selection in sport horse breeding programs were analyzed by applying selection index theory. Results in terms of accuracies of indices (r(TI) ) and relative selection response indicated that information on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotypes considerably increases the accuracy of breeding values estimated fo...
Tozaki T, Miyake T, Kakoi H, Gawahara H, Hirota K, Nakano Y, Kurosawa M.This study evaluated the differences between linear and non-linear modelled heritability estimates of racing performance based on lifetime earnings (LE) and lifetime ranking (LR) in Japanese Thoroughbred racehorses. The heritability estimate (h(2) = 0.25) obtained from a non-linear model based on formal Japan Racing Association ranking was much higher than that obtained from a linear model based on the original trait phenotype (h(2) = 0.11). The linear models showed slightly higher heritability estimates under the trait categorizations than under the original phenotypes, while the non-linear c...
Broström H, Fahlbrink E, Dubath ML, Lazary S.The distribution of equine leucocyte antigens (ELA) in Swedish Halfbreds affected by sarcoid tumors was determined and compared with that of control horses of the same breed. ELA-haplotype A3W13 appeared more frequently in affected horses, resulting in a chi 2 value of 4.45 (P = 0.034) for A3 and 9.05 (P = 0.0026) for W13, respectively. The relative risk factor (RR) could be estimated to 2.13 and 3.00 for A3 and W13, respectively. The etiology fraction (EF) was calculated to 28% and 37% for A3 and W13, respectively. Thus, in the population of Swedish Halfbreds approximately 40% (at least) of t...
Poppie MJ, McGuire TC.Combined immunodeficiency (CID), a defect in both B- and T-lymphocytes, was found to occur in 2.3% of 257 foals of Arabian breeding. All affected foals died by 5 months of age. The belief that CID is transmitted as an autosomal recessive genetic defect was supported by results from matings of dams and sires that had previously produced affected foals. Based on a prevalence of 2.3%, the proportion of carriers of the CID trait among the adult population surveyed was estimated to be 25.7%. Recent descriptions of other immunologic defects in foals emphasized the need for careful differential diagn...
Mickelson JR, Valberg SJ.Horses are remarkable athletes and a fascinating species in which to study the genetic bases of athletic performance, skeletal muscle biology, and neuromuscular disease. Genetic selection in horses has resulted in many breeds that possess anatomical, physiological, and metabolic variations linked to speed, power, and endurance that are beginning to be defined at the molecular level. Along with the concentration of positive traits, equine breeding programs have also inadvertently concentrated heritable muscle diseases for which mutations impacting electrical conduction, muscle contraction, and ...
Mele M, Gerber V, Straub R, Gaillard C, Jallon L, Burger D.The objective of this study was to investigate clinical signs indicating diseases with known or suspected hereditary components like equine sarcoid, insect bite hypersensitivity, osteochondrosis, allergic airway diseases, podotrochleosis, prognatism and wind-sucking in the franches-montagnes horse. We performed a clinical examination on 702 three-year-old, privately owned franches-montagnes horses, which were shown at the Swiss-Field-Tests in 2004. With the help of the owners a questionnaire on health, environment and feeding habits of the animals was completed. In 11.9% of the horses, sarcoid...
Rashmir-Raven A.Hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia is a form of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, and has an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance. Affected horses are typically born normal and develop lesions within the first 2 years of life. The most common symptoms of the disease include stretchy, loose skin that feels doughy or mushy. More severely affected horses experience spontaneous skin sloughing and extensive lacerations, hematomas, and seromas from minor trauma. Affected horses have a higher than expected incidence of corneal ulcers. DNA testing can normal, establish carrier and affected status. Pa...
MacLeay JM, Valberg SJ, Sorum SA, Sorum MD, Kassube T, Santschi EM, Mickelson JR, Geyer CJ.To determine the likely mode of inheritance and identify probable foundation horses for recurrent exertional rhabdomyolysis (RER) in Thoroughbred (TB) racehorses. Methods: 4 families of TB racehorses with a high prevalence of RER, consisting of 3 to 53 horses/family, were used to determine mode of inheritance. Sixty-two TB horses with RER and 34 control TB racehorses without RER were used to identify probable foundation horses for the RER trait. Methods: RER was diagnosed by a veterinarian and verified by detecting high serum creatine kinase activity. Pedigrees dating from 1930 for all horses ...
The Journal of heredityJuly 1, 1990
Volume 81, Issue 4 323-331 doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a110997
Sponenberg DP, Carr G, Simak E, Schwink K.The leopard complex of white spotting patterns in horses consists of the leopard, few-spot leopard, blanket, blanket with spots, varnish roan (or marble), snowflake, frosted, speckled, and mottled patterns. Horses with any of these patterns can produce the other patterns when mated to nonpatterned horses. Twenty-two horses of the Welsh Pony, Noriker, Appaloosa, and Pony of the Americas breeds produced 270 foals in a distribution consistent with a single dominant allele being responsible for the patterns. The symbol for this dominant allele, Lp, is retained from previous work on the leopard pat...
Stock KF, Distl O.Results of mare performance tests in the field (MPT-F) of 10,949 mares, mare performance tests at station (MPT-S) of 1,712 mares, and inspections of horses intended for sale at riding horse auctions (AU) of 4,772 horses were used to investigate genetic correlations between corresponding performance traits. Mare performance tests were held in 1995 to 2004 and auction inspections in 1999 to 2004. Scores on a scale from 0 to 10 were given for gaits under rider (walk, trot, canter), rideability (evaluated by judging commission and test rider), free-jumping (ability, style, total), and character. R...
Peeters LM, Janssens S, Brebels M, Buys N.Genetic factors involved in susceptibility to insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) in Belgian Warmblood horses (BWP) were investigated. Data relating to 3409 horses were collected using a questionnaire, administered to owners during sport competitions, BWP breeding days, breeder visits and after phone calls. Horses were classified as IBH-affected or unaffected, based on two 'disease classifiers': a lifetime record, based on owner information (life_status) and another based on whether or not the horse was showing clinical signs at the time of questioning (clin_status). IBH prevalence was 10% base...
Kim NY, Son JK, Cho IC, Shin SM, Park SH, Seong PN, Woo JH, Park NG, Park HB.Temperament can be defined as a type of behavioral tendency that appears in a relatively stable manner in responses to various external stimuli over time. The aim of this study was to estimate genetic parameters for the records of temperament testing that are used to improve the temperament of Jeju crossbred (Jeju×Thoroughbred) horses. Methods: This study was conducted using 205 horses (101 females and 104 males) produced between 2010 and 2015. The experimental animals were imprinted and tamed according to the Manual for Horse Taming and Evaluation for Therapeutic Riding Horses and evaluated ...
Hermans WA, Kersjes AW, van der Mey GJ, Dik KJ.A breeding experiment was carried out in a group of Shetland ponies in order to investigate the heredity of congenital lateral patellar (sub)luxation. A breeding herd was established and consisted of stallions and mares acquired at different times. Some were free from, and others were affected by lateral patellar (sub)luxation in either one or both femoropatellar joints. Over a period of 20 years, 49 foals were born from different mating combinations. Some offspring were free from the defect and others showed the abnormality. Though the number of foals bred during the experiment is rather smal...
White SD, Affolter VK, Schultheiss PC, Ball BA, Wessel MT, Kass P, Molinaro AM, Bannasch DL, Ihrke PJ.A Quarter horse filly bred from two horses affected with HERDA (hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia) was observed clinically and its skin histologically for the 1.5 years of its life. Severe signs of the disease did not manifest until 1.5 years of age, and were not temporally related to saddling. Histological comparison to an age-, breed- and sex-matched control did not show any consistent diagnostic features. Monitoring of the proband substantiated previous reports of (i) the autosomal recessive nature of the disease, (ii) mares affected with HERDA being able to foal without damage to ...
Kraus M, Physick-Sheard P, Brito LF, Sargolzaei M, Schenkel FS.Admissions of Standardbred racehorses (Std) to the Ontario Veterinary College Teaching Hospital (OVCTH) for treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) began to increase in the early 1990s. The arrhythmia has been shown to have a modest heritability (h2 ≃ 0.15), with some stallions appearing as sires or sires of mares used in breeding (broodmares) of affected horses more frequently than others. The objective of this study was to determine the marginal genetic contributions of ancestors to cohorts of Std affected with AF and their contemporary control groups, and whether these ancestors contribute ...
Cervantes I, Gutiérrez JP, García-Ballesteros S, Varona L.The racing time and rank at finish traits are commonly used for endurance horse breeding programs as a measure of their performance. Even so, given the nature of endurance competitions, many horses do not finish the race. However, the exclusion of non placed horses from the dataset could have an influence on the prediction of individual breeding values. The objective of the present paper was to develop a multitrait model including race time (T), rank (R) and placing (P), with different methodologies, to improve the genetic evaluation in endurance competitions in Spain. The database contained 6...
DeBowes RM, Gaughan EM.Equine congenital dental deformities are not limited merely to those presented here; however, the examples discussed offer the reader an appreciation for the range of severity and complexity that may be found in affected horses. The veterinarian is obligated to provide the best possible care for the patient and to relieve animal suffering. The lack of definitive evidence for heritability of many of these defects can place the veterinarian in an untenable position, particularly when presented with literature that proclaims or suggests without evidence that a particular condition is inherited. I...
Wolc A, Bresińska A, Szwaczkowski T.Twinning is a serious problem in Thoroughbred horses, as most of the multiple pregnancies are miscarried and live foals present lower performance values. The aim of this study was to estimate the heritability and repeatability of twinning in Thoroughbred horses. A total of 12648 pregnancies of 2033 Thoroughbred mares born between 1929 and 1994 in 11 studs were included. The analysis was performed by the use of AI-REML algorithm under three threshold animal models. The first model included effects of stud, mare's birth period and interaction between them as fixed. The second model included the ...
Stock KF, Distl O.Information on 26 434 German Warmblood horses born between 1992 and 2001 was used for multivariate genetic analyses of radiographic health, conformation and performance traits to compare different modes of single- and multiple-trait selection of sires. Results of standardized radiological examinations of 5155 Hanoverian Warmblood horses, conformation evaluations from studbook inspections of 20 603 mares, and performance evaluations from mare performance tests and auction horse inspections of 16 098 horses were used for multivariate genetic analyses. Genetic parameters were estimated with restr...
Ricard A, Dumont Saint Priest B, Danvy S, Barrey E.The aim of this study was to evaluate the genetic component of the locomotor jumping ability, via a wearable accelerometer sensor, and to estimate the genetic correlation with performance in competition, to introduce such criteria in selection schema. A sample of 1,056 young 3-year-old horses were equipped with a 3-dimensional accelerometer during a free jumping test, in regular breeding shows from 2015 to 2017. Seven variables were extracted from the dorso-ventral acceleration curve for the last three jumps over a double bar obstacle of 1.15 m for the front pole and 1.20 m for the back pole w...
Janova E, Futas J, Klumplerova M, Putnova L, Vrtkova I, Vyskocil M, Frolkova P, Horin P.The Old Kladruber horses arose in the 17th century as a breed used for ceremonial purposes. Currently, grey and black coat colour varieties exist as two sub-populations with different recent breeding history. As the population underwent historical bottlenecks and intensive inbreeding, loss of genetic variation is considered as the major threat. Therefore, genetic diversity in neutral and non-neutral molecular markers was examined in the current nucleus population. Fifty microsatellites, 13 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in immunity-related genes, three mutations in coat colour genes an...
Posta J, Somogyvári E, Mihók S.Gene conservation and management of small populations requires proper knowledge of the background and history of the breed. The aim of the study was the evaluation of population structure and changes of the Hungarian Hucul horse population. Population changes were described for the actual breeding stock as well as for groups of 10-year epochs reflecting major periods of change in the breed. Pedigree data of the registered population were analyzed using Endog and GRain software. The average value of equivalent complete generations was above nine for the actual breeding population. The longest g...
Barrey E.Equine breeding selection has been developed by applying quantitative genetic methods for calculating the heritability of the complex traits such as performance in racing or sport competitions. With the great development of biotechnologies, equine molecular genetics has come of age. The recent sequencing of the equine genome by an international consortium was a major advance that will impact equine genomics in the near future. With the rapid progress in equine genetics, new applications in early performance evaluation and the detection of disease markers become available. Many new biomolecular...
Negro Rama S, Valera M, Membrillo A, Gómez MD, Solé M, Menendez-Buxadera A, Anaya G, Molina A.The association of five candidate genes with sporting performance in young and adult Spanish Trotter horses (STHs) was performed according to a previous selection based on quantitative analysis of the trait time per kilometre (TPK). A total of 334 516 records of TPK from 5958 STHs were used to estimate the estimated breeding values (EBVs) at different age groups (young and adults horses) throughout the range of distances (1600-2700 m) using a bicharacter random regression model. The heritability estimated by distance ranged from 0.16 to 0.40, with a different range for the two age groups. Co...
Welsh CE, Lewis TW, Blott SC, Mellor DJ, Lam KH, Stewart BD, Parkin TD.A retrospective cohort study of important musculoskeletal conditions of Thoroughbred racehorses was conducted using health records generated over a 15 year period (n=5062, 1296 sires). The prevalence of each condition in the study population was: fracture, 13%; osteoarthritis, 10%; suspensory ligament injury, 10%; and tendon injury, 19%. Linear and logistic sire and animal regression models were built to describe the binary occurrence of these musculoskeletal conditions, and to evaluate the significance of possible environmental risk factors. The heritability of each condition was estimated us...
McCoy AM, Norton EM, Kemper AM, Beeson SK, Mickelson JR, McCue ME.Osteochondrosis is a common developmental orthopedic disease characterized by a failure of endochondral ossification. Standardbred horses are recognized as being predisposed to tarsal osteochondrosis. Prior heritability estimates for tarsal osteochondrosis in European Standardbreds and related trotting breeds have been based on pedigree data and range from 17-29%. Here, we report on genetic architecture and heritability based on high-density genotyping data in a cohort of North American Standardbreds (n = 479) stringently phenotyped for tarsal osteochondrosis. Whole-genome array genotyping d...
