In Ukraine, especially in certain natural and climatic zones, an important role in the production of food and social life of the population is played by the Carpathian Brown breed of cattle that extremely efficiently uses the natural pastures of the Carpathians. Animals of this breed have unique biological characteristics, resistant to diseases, have high resistance, the ability to withstand stress, have a strong constitution, a high duration of productive use, reproductive and adaptive ability, the content of protein in milk, available for chewing the kappa-casein fraction, good parameters for realization of genetic potential.
The Carpathian Brown cattle with its high adaptability to the environment deserve the preservation and sustainable use, and for this purpose it is necessary to create a reliable genetic foundation. Moreover, it is important to know the genetic features of animals that are intended to produce specific products and still remain a significant functional element of the production system in the region.
The gene kappa-casein is one of the few known genes, is uniquely associated with the signs of protein digestibility and technological properties of milk. Allele In the kappa-casein gene is associated with a higher protein content in milk, a higher yield of cheese, as well as better coagulation properties of milk.
The purpose of this work was to establish the genotypes and to determine the genetic structure of the population of the Carpathian Brown breeders for the gene of kappa-casein (CSN3) with the determination of the possibility of their further use.
The material for research was the semen of the bulls of Carpathian Brown breed (n = 21 heads), which originate from the leading tribal herds of the Zakarpattia oblast and evaluated by origin, by their own productivity at the Zakarpattia Regional State Tribal Station (now Private Joint-stock company "Zakarpatske plempidpryyemstvo").
In accordance with FAO recommendations for assessing the risk status of animal genetic resources and calculations carried out, a brown Carpathian breed of cattle is in the critical state of risk of disappearance. This status depends on the effective size of the population, the number of females and males, trends in the dynamics of their changes and the way breeder breeding work. In 2005 in 16 controllable herds of Zakarpattia and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts there were 2866 heads of cattle of Carpathian Brown breed, including 1083 cows. And since 2014 according to the State Register of subjects of breeding business in livestock breeding, no breeding farm has left in Ukraine for breeding this kind of breed and there is no program of breeding the pedigrees. The breeding stock of Carpathian Brown breed is breeding only in private peasant farms.
According to FAO recommendations, a part of the genetic material from the breeders of the brown Carpathian breed that belongs to Private Joint-stock company "Zakarpatske plempidpryyemstvo" was deposited in the Bank of Animals of Genetic Resources of Institute of Animal Breeding and Genetics nd. a. M.V.Zubets of NAAS. According to the data provided in the section "Reserve gene pool" of the Catalog of bulls of dairy and dairy-meat breeds, allowed to reproduce the mother stock in 2017, information is provided on 28 bulls of Carpathian Brown breed with available semen. Therefore, taking into account the results of the monitoring and analysis carried out, it should be noted that the possibility of restoration of the stock breed stock of Carpathian Brown breed has not been lost. Carpathian Brown breed as a local breed requires systematic population-genetic monitoring.
The genetic material of the breeders of Carpathian Brown breed according to the genealogical structure is diverse and belongs to 12 lines. The most numerous representatives of the fruit of the lines of the Sokola 553 i Malchyka 3, Kaplera 43, Stretcha 143612, Fitsko 33, Pishty 10, Eleyma 110327, Raneta 584, Rupora 6507, Siroho 1759, Shoni 6 i Yu. Yuvelira 273, which at one time were the most widespread in the breed. Representatives of these lines for the CSN3 gene revealed polymorphism of all possible variants of the genotypes AA, AB and BB.
According to the results of molecular genetic analysis, determination of frequency of distribution of genotypes and alleles of bulls of Carpathian Brown breed according to the gene of kapa-casein CSN3 has been determined. The frequency of the desired genotype BB among the examined animals was 0.143, and the frequency of carriers of the genotype AA was 0.381. Frequency of carriers of the heterozygous genotype AB was 0.476. The carrier frequency of the allele A in the animals tested is 0.619, which is twice as high as the allele B frequency of 0.381. By Hardy-Weinberg law, we did not determine the probable difference between the actual and expected distribution of genotype frequencies for the CSN3 gene.
Conclusions on the basis of the analysis of the established genotypes and the determined frequency of allelic variants for the kappa-casein (CSN3) gene in the explored bogs of Carpathian Brown breed Private Joint-stock company "Zakarpatske plempidpryyemstvo" it was revealed that the available genetic resources of the pedigrees are quite varied according to the genealogical and genetic structure.
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