Study of Genetic Diversity of Sheep Breeds in Afghanistan

Livestock production, such as mutton, milk and egg are important both as food and as trading staples. On the other hand, exterior exchange is being gained from selling the hide, wool, and other sub-products of the animals. The objective of this study is analysis of selected markers search as comparisons of two breeds among three Arab, Baluch and Gadic breeds. Mutual comparisons are conducted for detecting differences between breeds and accurately analyzing these differences. In this research the methods of haplotypic blocks analysis in experimental regions, the way of their erosions and LD graphs are drawn using Haploview v4.2 Software. Inputs used in this software consists genotypic information of markers in experimental regions and statistics that are used for LD calculation are the same correlational coefficients between r2 and surrounding SNPs.Animals and Samples Collection In this study, 45 blood samples were collected from three districts of Herat province (Shindand, Gulran and Obe) of three Afghan sheep breeds (Arabi, Baluchi and Gadic). 10 µL of blood was collected via the jugular vein in Venoject tubes with EDTA (Ethylene Diamine Tetraacetic Acid)for prevention of coagulation blood was collected immediately stored at 4 °C in the refrigerator. DNA was extracted from blood using the GenElute™ Blood Genomic DNA Kit. DNA concentration was determined using NanoDrop (Spectrophotometer ND-1000).Considering excess of heterozygosity within studied breeds, one can conclude that these breeds are not threatening in terms of heterozygosity decline and can be considered as an appropriate genetic reserve for different husbandry and eugenic purposes in Afghanistan. Furthermore high heterozygosity in studied chromosomes in Arab, Baluch and Gadic races suggests high diversity within population in spite of carrying out eugenic activities on livestock due to managerial plans which has managed to reduce the consistency level and keep the diversity in acceptable level.