Analyses of Genetic Diversity in the Endangered “Berrenda” Spanish Cattle Breeds Using Pedigree Data

Abstract

Pedigree analyses of two endangered cattle breeds were performed in order to study the structure and the genetic variability in their populations. Pedigree data were analyzed from 12,057 individuals belonging to the “Berrenda en Negro” cattle breed (BN) and 20,389 individuals belonging to the “Berrenda en Colorado” cattle breed (BC) that were born between 1983 and 2020. BN and BC reference populations (RP) were set up by 2300 and 3988 animals, respectively. The generation interval in BN and BC reference populations was equal to 6.50 and 6.92 years, respectively. The pedigree completeness level was 82.76% in BN and 79.57% in BC. The inbreeding rates were 4.5% in BN and 3.4% in BC, respectively. The relationship among animals when they were born in different herds was 1.8% in BN and 5% in BC; these values increased to 8.5% and 7.7%, respectively when comparing animals that were born in the same herd. The effective number of founding herds was 23.9 in BN and 60.9 in BC. Number of ancestors needed to explain 50% of genes pool in the whole population was 50 and 101, in BN and in BC, respectively. The effective population size based on co-ancestries was 92.28 in BN and 169.92 in BC. The genetic variability has been maintained in both populations over time and the results of this study suggest that measures to promote the conservation of the genetic variability in these two breeds would go through for the exchange of breeding animals among farms and for monitoring the genetic contributions before implementing any selective action.