African Indigenous Cattle: Unique Genetic Resources in a Rapidly Changing World

Mwai, Okeyo,Hanotte, Olivier,Kwon, Young-Jun,Cho, Seoae Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2015 Animal Bioscience Vol.28 No.7

At least 150 indigenous African cattle breeds have been named, but the majority of African cattle populations remain largely uncharacterized. As cattle breeds and populations in Africa adapted to various local environmental conditions, they acquired unique features. We know now that the history of African cattle was particularly complex and while several of its episodes remain debated, there is no doubt that African cattle population evolved dramatically over time. Today, we find a mosaic of genetically diverse population from the purest Bos taurus to the nearly pure Bos indicus. African cattle are now found all across the continent, with the exception of the Sahara and the river Congo basin. They are found on the rift valley highlands as well as below sea level in the Afar depression. These unique livestock genetic resources are in danger to disappear rapidly following uncontrolled crossbreeding and breed replacements with exotic breeds. Breeding improvement programs of African indigenous livestock remain too few while paradoxically the demand of livestock products is continually increasing. Many African indigenous breeds are endangered now, and their unique adaptive traits may be lost forever. This paper reviews the unique known characteristics of indigenous African cattle populations while describing the opportunities, the necessity and urgency to understand and utilize these resources to respond to the needs of the people of the continent and to the benefit of African farmers.

- Invited Review - African Indigenous Cattle: Unique Genetic Resources in a Rapidly Changing World

Okeyo Mwai,Olivier Hanotte,권영준,조서애 아세아·태평양축산학회 2015 Animal Bioscience Vol.28 No.7

At least 150 indigenous African cattle breeds have been named, but the majority of African cattle populations remain largely uncharacterized. As cattle breeds and populations in Africa adapted to various local environmental conditions, they acquired unique features. We know now that the history of African cattle was particularly complex and while several of its episodes remain debated, there is no doubt that African cattle population evolved dramatically over time. Today, we find a mosaic of genetically diverse population from the purest Bos taurus to the nearly pure Bos indicus. African cattle are now found all across the continent, with the exception of the Sahara and the river Congo basin. They are found on the rift valley highlands as well as below sea level in the Afar depression. These unique livestock genetic resources are in danger to disappear rapidly following uncontrolled crossbreeding and breed replacements with exotic breeds. Breeding improvement programs of African indigenous livestock remain too few while paradoxically the demand of livestock products is continually increasing. Many African indigenous breeds are endangered now, and their unique adaptive traits may be lost forever. This paper reviews the unique known characteristics of indigenous African cattle populations while describing the opportunities, the necessity and urgency to understand and utilize these resources to respond to the needs of the people of the continent and to the benefit of African farmers.

Exploring evidence of positive selection signatures in cattle breeds selected for different traits

Taye, M.,Lee, W.,Jeon, S.,Yoon, J.,Dessie, T.,Hanotte, O.,Mwai, O. A.,Kemp, S.,Cho, S.,Oh, S. J. Springer Science + Business Media 2017 Mammalian genome Vol.28 No.11

Genetic tests for estimating dairy breed proportion and parentage assignment in East African crossbred cattle

Strucken, Eva M.,Al-Mamun, Hawlader A.,Esquivelzeta-Rabell, Cecilia,Gondro, Cedric,Mwai, Okeyo A.,Gibson, John P. BioMed Central 2017 Genetics, selection, evolution Vol.49 No.1

<P><B>Background</B></P><P>Smallholder dairy farming in much of the developing world is based on the use of crossbred cows that combine local adaptation traits of indigenous breeds with high milk yield potential of exotic dairy breeds. Pedigree recording is rare in such systems which means that it is impossible to make informed breeding decisions. High-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) assays allow accurate estimation of breed composition and parentage assignment but are too expensive for routine application. Our aim was to determine the level of accuracy achieved with low-density SNP assays.</P><P><B>Methods</B></P><P>We constructed subsets of 100 to 1500 SNPs from the 735k-SNP Illumina panel by selecting: (a) on high minor allele frequencies (MAF) in a crossbred population; (b) on large differences in allele frequency between ancestral breeds; (c) at random; or (d) with a differential evolution algorithm. These panels were tested on a dataset of 1933 crossbred dairy cattle from Kenya/Uganda and on crossbred populations from Ethiopia (N = 545) and Tanzania (N = 462). Dairy breed proportions were estimated by using the ADMIXTURE program, a regression approach, and SNP-best linear unbiased prediction, and tested against estimates obtained by ADMIXTURE based on the 735k-SNP panel. Performance for parentage assignment was based on opposing homozygotes which were used to calculate the separation value (<I>sv</I>) between true and false assignments.</P><P><B>Results</B></P><P>Panels of SNPs based on the largest differences in allele frequency between European dairy breeds and a combined Nelore/N’Dama population gave the best predictions of dairy breed proportion (r<SUP>2</SUP> = 0.962 to 0.994 for 100 to 1500 SNPs) with an average absolute bias of 0.026. Panels of SNPs based on the highest MAF in the crossbred population (Kenya/Uganda) gave the most accurate parentage assignments (<I>sv</I> = −1 to 15 for 100 to 1500 SNPs).</P><P><B>Conclusions</B></P><P>Due to the different required properties of SNPs, panels that did well for breed composition did poorly for parentage assignment and vice versa. A combined panel of 400 SNPs was not able to assign parentages correctly, thus we recommend the use of 200 SNPs either for breed proportion prediction or parentage assignment, independently.</P><P><B>Electronic supplementary material</B></P><P>The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12711-017-0342-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.</P>

선발된 아프리카와 아시아 국가들을 위한 가축유전자원 정보시스템 구축

Tadelle Dessie,Grum Gebreyesus,Yetnayet Mamo,김동훈,조경래,정현정,Okeyo Mwai,오성종 韓國受精卵移植學會 2014 한국동물생명공학회지 Vol.29 No.1

Accurate information on the genetic and phenotypic characteristics and diversity of the indigenous Farm Animal Genetic Resources (FAnGR) is the basis on which their present and future sustainable utilization and conservation should be made. The paper describes the objectives, structure, functionality, content, utility and future prospects of the Country- Domestic Animal Genetic Resources Information System (DAGRIS) of ILRI. This electronic database is designed to cater for the needs of researchers, policy makers, development practitioners, eachers, students and farmers in developing countries for efficient access to available published and grey literature from past and present research results on the origin, distribution, diversity, present use and status of selected Farm Animal Genetic Resources (FAnGR) of the countries. Development of the country-modules of c-DAGRIS in English and French for Anglophone and Francophone countries is finalized and ready to be used.

Country based Domestic Animal Genetic Resource Information System (C-DAGRIS) for Selected African and Asian Countries

Tadelle Dessie,Grum Gebreyesus,Yetnayet Mamo,김동훈,조경래,정현정,Okeyo Mwai,오성종 사단법인 한국동물생명공학회 2014 한국동물생명공학회지 Vol.29 No.1

Accurate information on the genetic and phenotypic characteristics and diversity of the indigenous Farm AnimalGenetic Resources (FAnGR) is the basis on which their present and future sustainable utilization and conservationshould be made. The paper describes the objectives, structure, functionality, content, utility and future prospects ofthe Country- Domestic Animal Genetic Resources Information System (DAGRIS) of ILRI. This electronic databaseis designed to cater for the needs of researchers, policy makers, development practitioners, teachers, students andfarmers in developing countries for efficient access to available published and grey literature from past and presentresearch results on the origin, distribution, diversity, present use and status of selected Farm Animal Genetic Resources(FAnGR) of the countries. Development of the country-modules of c-DAGRIS in English and French for Anglophoneand Francophone countries is finalized and ready to be used.