Abstract :
Several local strains and populations of goats distinguished by morphogenetic and performance characteristics are kept
by goat breeders in different natural climatic regions of Mongolia, namely Bayandelger, Ulgii Red, Erchim Black, Dorgon
and Zavkhan Buural. The genetic relationships among eight native goat populations in Mongolia at 33 biochemical genetic
loci was assessed. A total of 440 animals in eight regional zones were studied. Twelve loci, i.e. the serum transferrin, serum
amylase, serum alkaline phosphatase, serum prealbumin-3, cell esterase-D, hemoglobin (Hb) , hemoglobin (Hb) -II, cell
peptidase-B, cell tetrazolium oxidase, cell esterase-1, cell esterase-2 and cell catalase loci, were found to be polymorphic. The
data indicated that Mongolian native goats are not highly differentiated (D = 0.0002–0.0038) genetically. To set Mongolian
native goats in a larger context, the present data were compared with those on other goat breeds and populations in east and
southeast Asia that were previously reported. The average heterozygosity in the Mongolian native goats did not significantly
differ from those in other Asian goat populations and breeds. A phylogenetic tree of the gene constitution of the Mongolian
native goats and other Asian goat breeds and populations was constructed and revealed that genetically the Mongolian native
goats had diverged slightly from the group consisting of Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indonesian native goats, but markedly
from the Indian goat group.
© 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
