Abstract :
Blood biochemical polymorphism of six Moroccan local sheep breeds was studied using
three electrophoretic systems: post-albumin, transferrin and haemoglobin Beta. A total
of 1263 blood samples from Timahdite, Béni Guil, Sardi, D’man, Béni Ahsen and Boujaâd
were tested. All loci sampled were found to be polymorphic. The post-albumin and
haemoglobin beta loci exhibited three alleles each, and the transferrin locus showed six
to nine alleles. The mean expected heterozygosity varied from 0.331 to 0.491. Genetic distances
between breeds, estimated using Cavalli-Sforza’s chord measure, were within the
range 0.006–0.026. Itwas concluded that based on the average heterozygosity, D’man, Sardi
and Béni Guil breeds may play an important role for the management of Moroccan sheep
genetic resources.
