Genetie Variations of Blood Groups and Biochemical Polymorphisms in NIH Miniature Pigs

The genetic variations of blood groups and biochemical polymorphisms in NIH miniature pigs were investigated in this study. The blood samples were collected from ten animals (6 males and 4 females) of this strain which was maintained in Kagoshima Prefectural Animal Husbandry Experiment Station. Blood types investigated comprised eight blood groups, five serum proteins, five red cell enzymes and two serum allotypes, 20 loci in total. The results were as follows. 1) NIH miniature pigs showed polymorphic variations at A, F, G, H, K, O, Pa, Hp, PHI, EsD, PSA-1 and PSA-II, 12 loci in total. When the gene frequencies in NIH miniature pigs were compared with those in the four miniature pig strains of Ohmini, Pitman-Moore, Göttingen and CLAWN-mini, NIH miniature strain showed characteristic frequencies in A, H, K, L and Pa loci. 2) The genetic variability of NIH miniature pigs based on the gene frequencies of 20 blood type loci was higher than those of Ohmini and CLAWN-mini, and equal to Göttingen and Pitman-Moore. 3) Using the gene frequencies at the 20 loci, the genetic distances between NIH miniature pigs and seventeen pig breeds were calculated on the basis of the formulae of Rogers (1972) and Nei (1975), and the dendrograms showing genetic similarities among eighteen pig populations were prepared. NIH miniature pigs showed far genetic distances from Chinese pig breeds and relatively close distances to Landrace, Hampshire and Pitman-Moore among Euro-American breeds. It was clarified from the dendrogram that NIH miniature pigs belonged to Euro American pig group, and was situated at the furthest distance among Euro-American breeds.