The population dynamics of horses refers to the study of changes in horse populations over time, influenced by factors such as birth rates, death rates, immigration, and emigration. These dynamics are shaped by environmental conditions, resource availability, predation, and human intervention. Understanding population dynamics is essential for managing wild horse populations and ensuring sustainable practices in breeding and conservation efforts. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the factors affecting horse population dynamics, including genetic diversity, habitat utilization, and the impact of management strategies on population stability and growth.
Mirol PM, Peral GarcÃa P, Vega-Pla JL, Dulout FN.South American horses constitute a direct remnant of the Iberian horses brought to the New World by the Spanish conquerors. The source of the original horses was Spain, and it is generally assumed that the animals belonged to the Andalusian, Spanish Celtic, Barb or Arabian breeds. In order to establish the relationship between Argentinean and Spanish horses, a portion of the mitochondrial D-loop of 104 animals belonging to nine South American and Spanish breeds was analysed using SSCP and DNA sequencing. The variability found both within and between breeds was very high. There were 61 polymorp...
DÃaz S, Dulout FN, Peral-GarcÃa P.Genetic polymorphism was analyzed for five blood proteins: albumin - Al, esterase - Es, alpha(1)B-glycoprotein - Xk, transferrin - Tf and hemoglobin - Hb in 200 Thoroughbred (TB) and 124 Argentine Creole (AC) horses. Of the five systems examined, Tf and Hb were not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in either breed and Es was not in equilibrium in the Creole breed. Genetic variability, estimated as average heterozygosity, was higher in AC (H = 0.585 +/- 0.131) than in TB (H = 0.353 +/- 0.065). The genetic differentiation between these two populations (F(ST)) was 0.109. Thus, of the total genetic di...
Schelling C, Hagger C, Pieńkowska A, Siegfried JP, Stranzinger G.A population of Baudet du Poitou donkeys was genetically characterized using microsatellites. The results were used to verify the pedigrees and to estimate the genetic variability. It could be confirmed that a equine parentage test kit works well for donkeys and that by using 13 microsatellites more than 99% of wrong pedigree informations would be detected. The genetic variability was comparable to a representative group of Baudet du Poitou donkeys in France.
Henner J, Poncet PA, Aebi L, Hagger C, Stranzinger G, Rieder S.Coat color played an important role during domestication and formation of breeds. Livestock breeders often had special preferences for particular color phenotypes because they believed them to be associated with performance or fitness traits. Socio-cultural reasons might have had an influence on color selection as well. Recently genetic tests on DNA level got available to genotype in any individual horse for basic horse coat colors (chestnut, bay, black). In particular, hidden carriers of the recessive chestnut and black allele are recognizable with these tests. A sample of 162 Franches-Montag...
Kirkpatrick JF, Turner A.Contraceptive management of publicly valued wildlife species requires safeguards to ensure that these populations are preserved in a healthy state. In addition, reversibility of contraceptive effects and safety in pregnant animals are major concerns. A population of wild horses has been immunized against porcine zona pellucida (PZP) over a 12 year period on Assateague Island National Seashore, MD (ASIS). Mares initially received one or two 65 microg inoculations and once a year 65 microg booster inoculations, all delivered by dart. All young mares aged > 2 years were treated with PZP for 3 ...
Turner JW, Liu IK, Flanagan DR, Bynum KS, Rutberg AT.Porcine zona pellucida (PZP) immunocontraception was investigated for possible use in free-roaming wild horses in the western USA. A protocol of two injections (3-4 weeks apart) of vaccine lasting 1 year was first used and a single-injection controlled-release vaccine of 1 year duration was developed and tested in the field. Studies of a presumptive vaccine of 2 year duration were initiated. The parameters of anti-PZP antibody titre response, pregnancy testing and offspring production were used, and PZP vaccine was found to provide up to 94% infertility in free-roaming wild mares. In addition,...
Turner A, Kirkpatrick JF.Contraception is becoming a common approach for the management of captive and wild ungulates yet there are few data for contraceptive effects on entire populations. Management-level treatment of mares with porcine zona pellucida (PZP) vaccine resulted in zero population growth of the Assateague Island wild horse population within 1 year of initiation of treatment. Contraceptive efficacy was 90% for mares treated twice in the first year and annually thereafter. For mares given a single initial inoculation, contraceptive efficacy was 78%. The effort required to achieve zero population growth dec...
Harnal VK, Wildt DE, Bird DM, Monfort SL, Ballou JD.Genome resource banks (GRBs) and assisted reproductive techniques are increasingly recognized as useful tools for the management and conservation of biodiversity, including endangered species. Cryotechnology permits long-term storage of valuable genetic material. Although, the actual application to endangered species management requires technical knowledge about sperm freezing and thawing, a systematic understanding of the quantitative impacts of various germ plasm storage and use scenarios is also mandatory. In this study, various GRB strategies were analyzed using the historical data from th...
Bjørnstad G, Røed KH.Assignment tests have been utilized to investigate population classification, measure genetic diversity and to solve forensic questions. Using microsatellite data from 26 loci genotyped in eight horse breeds we examined how population differentiation, number of scored loci, number of scored animals per breed and loci variability affected individual assignment precision applying log likelihood methods. We found that both genetic differentiation and number of scored loci were highly important for recognizing the breed of origin. When comparing two and two breeds, a proportion of 95% of the most ...
Hill EW, Bradley DG, Al-Barody M, Ertugrul O, Splan RK, Zakharov I, Cunningham EP.Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop sequences (381 bp) from 100 thoroughbreds in 19 of the most common matrilineal female families were used to reconstruct a founder female population for the thoroughbred ( approximately 1650-1750 AD). Seventeen haplotypes were found to have contributed to the 19 female lineages. In order to place the reconstructed founder population in wider historical context, we examined, using both single strand conformation polymorphism and direct sequence analysis, variation in a 343 bp mtDNA fragment in that population and 13 other horse populations of disparate provenance...
Jansen T, Forster P, Levine MA, Oelke H, Hurles M, Renfrew C, Weber J, Olek K.The place and date of the domestication of the horse has long been a matter for debate among archaeologists. To determine whether horses were domesticated from one or several ancestral horse populations, we sequenced the mitochondrial D-loop for 318 horses from 25 oriental and European breeds, including American mustangs. Adding these sequences to previously published data, the total comes to 652, the largest currently available database. From these sequences, a phylogenetic network was constructed that showed that most of the 93 different mitochondrial (mt)DNA types grouped into 17 distinct p...
Inoue Y, Yamaguchi K, Sawada T, Rivero JC, Horii Y.Borna disease virus (BDV)-specific antibodies were monitored in Misaki feral horses annually for 4 years using an electrochemiluminescence immunoassay (ECLIA). Among 130 horses examined, 35 (26.9%) with an ECLIA count above 1000 once or more were judged as BDV seropositive. Throughout the study period, p24 antibodies were more frequent than p40 antibodies in almost all positive animals. Among the 35 seropositive horses, the ECLIA count was consistently high in 12 cases. Eleven horses seroconverted from negative to positive and 7 underwent reversal. The count in the remaining 95 horses (73.1%) ...
Irby LR, Norland JE, Westfall JA, Sullivan MA.We developed a forage allocation model using a deterministic, linear optimization module in a commercially available spreadsheet package to help resource managers in Theodore Roosevelt National Park (TRNP), North Dakota determine optimum numbers of four ungulate species, bison (Bison bison), elk (Cervus elaphus), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), and feral horses, in the Park. TRNP staff actively managed bison, elk, and feral horse numbers within bounds suggested by our model from 1983 to 1996. During this period, we measured vegetation at 8 grassland and 12 wooded sites at 1-3 year intervals t...
Tillotson K, Traub-Dargatz JL, Dickinson CE, Ellis RP, Morley PS, Hyatt DR, Magnuson RJ, Riddle WT, Bolte D, Salman MD.To determine the percentage of broodmares and foals that shed Clostridium perfringens in their feces and classify the genotypes of those isolates. Methods: Prospective cross-sectional study. Methods: 128 broodmares and their foals on 6 equine premises. Methods: Anaerobic and aerobic bacteriologic cultures were performed on feces collected 3 times from broodmares and foals. All isolates of C. perfringens were genotyped. Results: Clostridium perfringens was isolated from the feces of 90% of 3-day-old foals and 64% of foals at 8 to 12 hours of age. A lower percentage of broodmares and 1- to 2-mon...
Belcastro MG, Facchini F.In the medieval necropolis of Vicenne (Italy) among 130 skeletons, thirteen horsemen, recognized on the basis of the contextual burials with horse, have been found. This rite, rarely found in Europe, recalls an Asian rite, attested from the Iron Age to the Age of Migration in nomadic Asian populations. Local and Germanic goods were also found. In order to study the anthropological composition of this population, some morphometrical skeletal features have been analyzed. Heterogeneity both in the horsemen and in the other males of the necropolis has been observed. Besides the multicultural conte...
Tozaki T, Kakoi H, Mashima S, Hirota K, Hasegawa T, Ishida N, Miura N, Choi-Miura NH, Tomita M.Microsatellite 15 TKY System was characterized for parentage verification of horse registry. The Microsatellite 15 TKY System was constructed by using 15 microsatellites, TKY279, TKY287, TKY294, TKY297, TKY301, TKY312, TKY321, TKY325, TKY333, TKY337, TKY341, TKY343, TKY344, TKY374, and TKY394, to provide stringent PCR-based microsatellite typing specifically optimized for multicolor fluorescence detection. The Microsatellite 15 TKY System showed good resolutions for 250 unrelated Thoroughbred horses, and the probability of exclusion (PE) at each microsatellite ranged from 0.437 to 0.621, resul...
Kniazev SP, Reissmann M, Wagner HJ, KuraÄ MV, Samovolov NV.Results of the first in Russia survey of the gene pool of the breeding nucleus of the Russian population of thoroughbred horses by means of PCR analysis of the E (Extension) locus MC1R gene mutations are presented. The data on the structure of breeding populations from the leading stud farms Voskhod and Oros with regard to color phenotypes as well as genotype and allele frequencies are presented. The population structure parameters are discussed with respect to possible specific features of microevolution processes.
Cunningham EP, Dooley JJ, Splan RK, Bradley DG.The thoroughbred (TB) horse is one of the oldest breeds of domestic animals, with pedigree records spanning three centuries. Because the population is essentially closed, there is concern about loss of genetic variation. Here we report two parallel analyses. In the first, genetic variation in the current population is measured using data from 13 microsatellite loci in 211 horses with relationships calculated based on allele sharing. In the second analysis, pedigree information is used to calculate genetic relationships between animals based on shared ancestry. These two measures of relationshi...
Cothran EG, van Dyk E, van der Merwe FJ.Genetic variation at 7 blood-group and 10 biochemical genetic loci was examined in 30 horses from a feral herd from the Namib Desert of Namibia, Africa. The observed genetic variability was extremely low compared with that found in domestic horse breeds. The low variation was most probably a result of recent small population size and a small founding population size. Genetic comparison of the Namib horses, which were of unknown origins, to domestic horse breeds, showed that the Namib horses had the highest genetic similarity to Arabian type horses, although they did not closely resemble this t...
Hesselmar B, Aberg B, Eriksson B, Aberg N.In this 5-year follow-up study we compared the prevalence of allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, eczema, and sensitization, in relation to several background factors, in two Swedish regions (Göteborg and Kiruna). In Göteborg, a city on the southwest coast, the climate is mild and humid. Kiruna is a town north of the Arctic Circle. Questionnaire replies and results of interviews were collected from all 412 7-8-year-old children of a population-based sample (203 in Göteborg and 209 in Kiruna); in addition, 192 children from Göteborg and 205 from Kiruna were skin-prick tested for sensitization to c...
Bjørnstad G, Røed KH.Population demarcation of eight horse breeds was investigated using genotype information of 306 horses from 26 microsatellite loci. The breeds include the indigenous Norwegian breeds Fjord Horse, Nordland/Lyngen Horse, Døle Horse and Coldblooded Trotter together with Icelandic Horse, Shetland Pony, Standardbred and Thoroughbred. Both phylogenetic analysis and a maximum likelihood method were applied to examine the potential for breed allocation of individual animals. The phylogenetic analysis utilizing simple allele sharing statistics revealed clear demarcation among the breeds; 95% of the in...
Science (New York, N.Y.)February 13, 2001
Volume 291, Issue 5503 474-477 doi: 10.1126/science.291.5503.474
Vilà C, Leonard JA, Gotherstrom A, Marklund S, Sandberg K, Liden K, Wayne RK, Ellegren H.Domestication entails control of wild species and is generally regarded as a complex process confined to a restricted area and culture. Previous DNA sequence analyses of several domestic species have suggested only a limited number of origination events. We analyzed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region sequences of 191 domestic horses and found a high diversity of matrilines. Sequence analysis of equids from archaeological sites and late Pleistocene deposits showed that this diversity was not due to an accelerated mutation rate or an ancient domestication event. Consequently, high mtDNA se...
Erickson JD, Lee DV, Bertram JE.The goal of this study was to identify changes in acetabular morphology associated with the use of horses by Native Americans. Previous studies reported "elongate" acetabula in horseback-riding members of the Omaha and Ponca populations. Such a difference in acetabular shape is a potentially useful osteological marker of habitual horseback riding. This report compares acetabula of adult males from two Native American Arikara populations known to have differed substantially in their use of horses. Population samples were from separate sites in South Dakota: Larson (nonriding) and Leavenworth (r...
Cameron EZ, Linklater WL.The Trivers-Willard hypothesis (TWH) predicts that a mother will treat a son or daughter differently depending on her ability to invest and the impact of her investment on offspring reproductive success. Although many studies have investigated the hypothesis, few have definitively supported or refuted it because of confounding factors or an inappropriate level of analysis. We studied maternal investment in sons and daughters in feral horses, Equus caballus, which meet the assumptions of the TWH with a minimum of confounding variables. Population level analyses revealed no differences in matern...
Linklater WL.Socio-ecological explanations for intra- and interspecific variation in the social and spatial organization of animals predominate in the scientific literature. The socio-ecological model, developed first for the Bovidae and Cervidae, is commonly applied more widely to other groups including the Equidae. Intraspecific comparisons are particularly valuable because they allow the role of environment and demography on social and spatial organization to be understood while controlling for phylogeny or morphology which confound interspecific comparisons. Feral horse (Equus caballus Linnaeus 1758) p...
Leblond A, Villard I, Leblond L, Sabatier P, Sasco AJ.Epidemiological studies should allow comparisons to be made of the prevalence of disease in populations from different countries, but the population characteristics and health problems in French horses are not well established. We have conducted a retrospective evaluation of the causes of death and vital characteristics of insured horses in France for the year 1995, with a view to comparison with published data from other countries. Files on 448 deceased horses were provided by nine insurance companies. Most of the animals were used for breeding (60%), followed by leisure (20%), eventing and r...
Barber MR, Fayrer-Hosken RA.Ecological and conservation programs in ecosystems around the world have experienced varied success in population management. One of the greatest problems is that human expansion has led to the shrinking of wildlife habitat and, as a result, the overpopulation of many different species has occurred. The pressures exerted by the increased number of animals has caused environmental damage. The humane and practical control of these populations has solicited the scientific community to arrive at a safe, effective, and cost-efficient means of population control. Immunocontraception using zona pellu...
Ricketts SW, Rossdale PD.The authors discuss the value of a practice laboratory to the equine clinician and its priorities. Laboratory examinations of particular value are described in relation to their clinical application. The need to establish normal values according to laboratory and horse population is stressed. Tables of normal parameters related to age groups of horses in the authors' practice are presented.
Watanabe M, Sato F, Innan H.We investigated the changes in inbreeding levels in Japanese Thoroughbred horses over the past 46 years. Our results show a significant increase in inbreeding over the past 30 years, primarily due to the influence of two sires, Northern Dancer and Sunday Silence. Northern Dancer's bloodline spread gradually through descendants like Northern Taste, leading to a slower increase in the inbreeding coefficient. In contrast, Sunday Silence was directly imported and became a leading sire, causing a rapid increase in his blood proportion and inbreeding coefficient. Our findings suggest that monitoring...
Barsi B, Oláh J, Posta J.The Hungarian Coldblood horse was developed in the 1920s by crossing local mares with draft horses imported from Belgium and France, and was approved as an official horse breed in 1954. The aim of the study was to analyze the quality of the pedigree, generation interval, gene origin, and inbreeding. The pedigree information was received from the Hungarian Coldblood Horse Breeding Association. The studbook data of the registered animals up to 2023 were evaluated. Two reference populations were chosen: horses having offspring in 1989 and 2023. The final database contained 21,699 horses. Pedigree...
Yamashita J, Oki H, Hasegawa T, Honda T, Nomura T.Genetic contributions of nine historically important ancestors and allelic diversity in the Japanese Thoroughbred population were examined by applying the gene dropping simulation to the foals produced from 1978 to 2005. Full pedigree records traced to ancestors (base animals) born around 1890 were used for the simulation. Alleles originated from some of the historically important ancestors were found to be at risk of future extinction, although their genetic contributions to the foal population have increased during the last three decades. The proportion of surviving alleles to the total alle...
Henner J, Poncet PA, Aebi L, Hagger C, Stranzinger G, Rieder S.Coat color played an important role during domestication and formation of breeds. Livestock breeders often had special preferences for particular color phenotypes because they believed them to be associated with performance or fitness traits. Socio-cultural reasons might have had an influence on color selection as well. Recently genetic tests on DNA level got available to genotype in any individual horse for basic horse coat colors (chestnut, bay, black). In particular, hidden carriers of the recessive chestnut and black allele are recognizable with these tests. A sample of 162 Franches-Montag...
Belcastro MG, Facchini F.In the medieval necropolis of Vicenne (Italy) among 130 skeletons, thirteen horsemen, recognized on the basis of the contextual burials with horse, have been found. This rite, rarely found in Europe, recalls an Asian rite, attested from the Iron Age to the Age of Migration in nomadic Asian populations. Local and Germanic goods were also found. In order to study the anthropological composition of this population, some morphometrical skeletal features have been analyzed. Heterogeneity both in the horsemen and in the other males of the necropolis has been observed. Besides the multicultural conte...
DÃaz S, Dulout FN, Peral-GarcÃa P.Genetic polymorphism was analyzed for five blood proteins: albumin - Al, esterase - Es, alpha(1)B-glycoprotein - Xk, transferrin - Tf and hemoglobin - Hb in 200 Thoroughbred (TB) and 124 Argentine Creole (AC) horses. Of the five systems examined, Tf and Hb were not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in either breed and Es was not in equilibrium in the Creole breed. Genetic variability, estimated as average heterozygosity, was higher in AC (H = 0.585 +/- 0.131) than in TB (H = 0.353 +/- 0.065). The genetic differentiation between these two populations (F(ST)) was 0.109. Thus, of the total genetic di...
Nishita Y, Amaike Y, Spassov N, Hristova L, Kostov D, Vladova D, Peeva S, Raichev E, Vlaeva R, Masuda R.The domestication of the horse began possibly more than 5000 years ago in the western part of the Eurasian steppe, and according to the leading hypothesis, horses first spread from the Steppe toward the region of the Thracian culture, starting in the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE and flourished from the fifth to first centuries BCE, mainly located in present-day Bulgaria. We analyzed 17 horse bone remains excavated from Thracian archaeological sites (fourth to first centuries BCE) in Bulgaria and successfully identified 17 sequences representing 14 different haplotypes of the mitocho...
Farchati H, Merlin A, Saussac M, Dornier X, Dhollande M, Garon D, Tapprest J, Sala C.Identifying and tracking equines are key activities in equine health prevention. France is one of the few European countries with an operational centralized database that records information on equines, owners, and keepers but not on the location and keeping conditions of equines. The objective of our study was to collect information on keeping habits of equines and the relative location of a wide range of equines, owners, and keepers and discuss their implication for surveillance and control of outbreak improvement. A national email survey was conducted among the 1.9% of people registered as ...
Knight PK, Thomson PC.OBJECTIVE Compare the career profiles of a cohort of Standardbred horses that first raced as 2-year-olds with those that started their racing careers at a later age. METHOD Retrospective analysis of the racing records of all foals born in New South Wales in the 2000 foaling season. RESULTS The career records of 999 horses were analysed. Almost half (43.9%) first raced as 2-year-olds and one-third (33.9%) as 3-year-olds. The median career duration for horses that first raced as 2-year-olds was 2.93 years (interquartile range (IQR) 2.70-3.16), which was significantly greater than the median for ...
Wilke K, Weimann M, Jung M, Geldermann H.10 different oligonucleotide probes were evaluated for DNA fingerprinting in horses. Five probes were able to detect polymorphic bands. The probes (GT)(8) , (GTG)(5) and (GGAT)(4) are most informative for individual identification and were used to analyze a population of Hannoveranian horses. The probability that two individuals have the same DNA fingerprint pattern is 1.2 × 10(-8) , 5.2 × 10(-10) and 1.5 × 10(-7) respectively. Using a combination of the three probes, paternity tests were performed with exclusion probabilities between 0.08% and 4%. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG: Oligonukleotide-Sonden fÃ...
Wobbe M, Reinhardt F, Reents R, Tetens J, Stock KF.Awareness of breeders of Warmblood Fragile Foal Syndrome (WFFS) increased after a widely discussed case in the USA in 2018. The hereditary connective tissue disorder, first described by a US research group in 2011 and for which a commercial genetic test exists since 2013, is caused by a point mutation in the PLOD1 gene, inherited autosomal recessively. Extension of molecular genetic testing and reporting of test results of organized horse breeders to their studbooks implies new opportunities for analyses. In Germany, data are centrally accessible through the integrated equine data base allowin...
Scholtz M, Guthrie AJ, Fosgate GT, Schulman ML.Population demographics and reproductive performance of Thoroughbred populations have been described, but the most recent assessment of the South African Thoroughbred population was reported two decades ago. Objectives of this study were to report demographic data for selected Thoroughbred breeding populations and to analyse selected mare-level variables in association with foaling outcomes, as predictors of reproductive performance. The National Horseracing Authority of Southern Africa's stud health scheme requires annual screening of Thoroughbred stallions, maiden and barren mares for venere...
Lean NE, Franklin SH, Steel C, Woolford L, White J, Ahern BJ.Little is known about potential differences in the left recurrent laryngeal nerve (Lrln) and left cricoarytenoideus dorsalis (LCAD) muscle between domestic and feral horse populations. If a difference exists, feral horses may provide a useful control population for research related to recurrent laryngeal neuropathy (RLN) and increase our understanding of potential population pressures influencing the incidence RLN. The objective of this study was to compare the Lrln and LCAD of domestic and feral horses using histological and immunohistochemical techniques (IHC). Sixteen horses, domestic (n = ...
Dubrovskaia RM, Starodumov IM, Bannikova LV.The estimation of genetic differentiation between 27 horses breeds originated in USSR, based on serum proteins polymorphism (loci Tf, Al, Es) is shown. Genetical variability among aborigine breeds is higher then among cultural ones. The erosion of gene pool of Przewalski's Horse is explained by special history of this population and a few horses in analyzing group. Genetic distances reflect the directions and intensity of breeding. High genetical distances between Przewalski's Horse, Shetland Pony and other horses obtained could be explained by overcoming the "bottle neck" of selections in bre...
Hall SJ.An objective and accountable method is needed for deducing the number of registered animals in a breed from registration data. By following the principle that individual breeders register sufficient young females to be certain of having enough replacements for their current breeding stock, the ratios were calculated of the number of adult females in a breed to the number of female registrations, in a given year. Number of breeds considered were 8 cattle, 16 sheep, 8 pigs, 1 goat and 2 equines, all in the United Kingdom or Ireland. This yielded multipliers (4.4 for cattle, 3.3 for sheep, 3.1 fo...
Davies MR.Despite tight biosecurity measures, an outbreak of respiratory disease rapidly spread across the Icelandic equine population in 2010. Horse transportation was brought to a halt in order to contain the spread of the infectious agent. In a recent article, Björnsdóttir and colleagues (S. Björnsdóttir et al., mBio 8:e00826-17, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.00826-17) employ the power and resolution of "genomic epidemiology," the combination of whole genomic sequencing and epidemiological approaches, to examine the source and spread of the outbreak. Intriguingly, the outbreak was not viral ...
Steward KF, Harrison T, Robinson C, Slater J, Maskell DJ, Harris SR, Holden MTG, Waller AS.Opportunistic pathogens must adapt to and survive in a wide range of complex ecosystems. Streptococcus zooepidemicus is an opportunistic pathogen of horses and many other animals, including humans. The assembly of different surface architecture phenotypes from one genotype is likely to be crucial to the successful exploitation of such an opportunistic lifestyle. Construction of a series of mutants revealed that a serine recombinase, PinR, inverts 114 bp of the promoter of SZO_08560, which is bordered by GTAGACTTTA and TAAAGTCTAC inverted repeats. Inversion acts as a switch, controlling the tra...
Lee J, Shin D, Kim H.Thoroughbred horses have been bred exclusively for racing in England for a long time. Additionally, because horse racing is a global sport, a healthy leisure activity for ordinary citizens, and a high-value business, systematic racehorse breeding at the population level is a requirement for continuous industrial development. Therefore, we established genomic evaluation system (using prize money as horse racing traits) to produce spirited, agile, and strong racing horse population. Methods: We used phenotypic data from 25,061 Thoroughbred horses (all registered individuals in Korea) that compet...
Kalmykov NP.The first data on polymorphism and preadaptation of the Pleistocene horses in the mountains surrounding Lake Baikal are presented. It has been shown that disregard of intraspecific polymorphism leads to unreasonable ignoring of their diversity, phylogenetically false constructions, and incorrect interpretation of natural environment.
Kniazev SP, Nikitin SV.The study of the association between the coat-color variants and the blood-group system D antigens in the populations of two related trotter breeds (Orlov Trotter and Russian Trotter) showed the presence of three associations between these characters in the Orlov Trotter breed. In the populations of Russian trotters, these associations were not detected. Possible reasons for the formation and maintenance of these associations and the role of the selection for coat color in the differentiation of breeds by the frequencies of some system D antigens are discussed.
Chen J, Wang H, Li J, Liu S, Li B, Sun Y, Wang H, Manglai D.To date, the origins, domestication, and genetic structure of Chinese Mongolian horses (CMH) are poorly understood. Furthermore, there have been sparse reports on the genetic differences between CMH and Thoroughbred. In order to determine their genetic structure, understand their genetic relationships, and explore their domestication processes, we performed an extensive survey of creatine kinase (muscle isoenzyme; variations among six populations of indigenous CMH, cultivated Sanhe horses, and imported Thoroughbred. Twenty-three single-nucleotide polymorphisms were found among the 343 horse s...
Hewson J, Johnson R, Arroyo LG, Diaz-Mendez A, Ruiz-López JA, Gu Y, del Castillo JR.Healthy neonatal foals were treated with cefotaxime by bolus (40 mg/kg i.v. q6h for 12 doses; n=10) or by infusion (loading dose of 40 mg/kg i.v. followed by continuous infusion of a total daily dose of 160 mg/kg per 24 h for 3 days; n=5). Population pharmacokinetics was determined, and concentrations in cavity fluids were measured at steady state (72 h). Highest measured serum drug concentration in the bolus group was 88.09 μg/mL and minimum drug concentration (C(min)) was 0.78 μg/mL at 6-h postadministration (immediately before each next dose), whereas infusion resulted in a steady-state c...
Naugle R, Grams K.The development of sophisticated delivery equipment, as well as safer and more effective drugs, has made remote delivery of animal drugs a standard and readily available tool for wildlife professionals, veterinarians, ranchers, and animal control officers. In the 1980s, researchers began treating a wide variety of wildlife with injectable porcine zona pellucida immunocontraceptive vaccines. Remote delivery of immunocontraceptives has been proven effective at the individual and population level for wild horses and urban deer. However, it took only a short time at each study site to understand t...
Kampmann S, Hampson BA, Pollitt CC.Recent record rainfall in much of semi-arid Central Australia is the most likely reason for a feral horse population increase in excess of normal. Uncontrolled numbers of feral horses have habitat degradation and animal welfare implications. Objective: The aims of this study were to investigate the social structure of feral horses and assess their population growth rate following unseasonably high rainfall. Methods: The study area was 4000 km(2) of unmanaged, semi-arid country in Central Australia (latitude 24.50°S, longitude 132.10°E). Horses were identified by descriptive features from g...
Kaminski M.The detection of the recessive null allele of horse serum esterase (Es) is possible in heterozygotes Es+/EsO which by starch gel electrophoresis appear like homozygotes Es+/Es+. Two methods are proposed, the titration of enzymatic activity of esterase and the immunochemical titration of esterase as antigen. These methods can be applied to solve the cases of suspect parentage or in population studies.
Kniazev SP, Reissmann M, Wagner HJ, KuraÄ MV, Samovolov NV.Results of the first in Russia survey of the gene pool of the breeding nucleus of the Russian population of thoroughbred horses by means of PCR analysis of the E (Extension) locus MC1R gene mutations are presented. The data on the structure of breeding populations from the leading stud farms Voskhod and Oros with regard to color phenotypes as well as genotype and allele frequencies are presented. The population structure parameters are discussed with respect to possible specific features of microevolution processes.
Yordanov G, Zlatanovic N, Palova N, Mehandjyiski I, Neov B, Radoslavov G, Hristov P.The objective of our study was to investigate the genetic structure of yet uninvestigated populations of three closely related horse breeds - the Danubian Horse, the Hungarian Nonius and the Serbian Nonius - in order to clarify their origin and genetic diversity. A 640-bp-long fragment of the mtDNA D-loop region was amplified and sequenced. The results showed that the investigated breeds have different genetic profiles although they share some common characteristics. We identified nine of the 17 haplogroups described in modern horses. Most of the obtained sequences fall into the M, L, G, and O...
Lim QL, Tan YL, Ng WL, Yong CSY, Ismail A, Rovie-Ryan JJ, Rosli N, Annavi G.A molecular sexing method by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of a portion of the sex-determining region Y (SRY) and the zinc finger (ZF) gene, as well as six equine Y-chromosome-specific microsatellite markers, were tested in the Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus). While the microsatellite markers did not yield any male-specific amplicons for sex-typing, the SRY/ZF marker system produced reliable molecular sexing results by accurately sex-typing 31 reference Malayan tapirs, using whole blood, dried blood spot (DBS), or tissue samples as materials for DNA extraction. The marker syste...
