Study on the Polymorphism of Bovine Lactoferrin Gene and Its Relationship with Mastitis

Mastitis is a major cause of economic loss to the dairy industry. Lactoferrin (Lf ) is known to contribute to resistance against bacterial infections. Hence, we decided to characterize the relevance between mastitis resistance and the variants of Lf gene. By using PCR-SSCP, five fragments within 5’ region and all exons of bovine lactoferrin gene were amplified and identified the nucleotide diversity. For the five segments within the 5’-region: Lf5’-1, Lf5’-2, Lf5’-3, Lf5’-4, and Lf5’-5 from upstream to downstream, we found that three had base variation. Totally, mutations were observed in Lf5’-1, Lf5’-3, and Lf5’-5, exons 4, 8, 9, 11, 15, and intron 4. We analyzed the effects of all mutated loci on milk production traits with least squares method.