Applicability assessment of a standardized microsatellite marker set in endangered Busha cattle

Abstract

This study is focused on evaluating 12 microsatellite markers (TGLA227, BM2113, TGLA53, ETH10, SPS115, TGLA126, TGLA122, INRA23, BM1818, ETH3, ETH225, BM1824) as recommended by International Society of Animal Genetics (ISAG) for paternity testing in Busha cattle in Serbia. A herd of 47 heads of Busha cattle were sampled for blood. The number of alleles ranged from 6 (ETH10) to 16 (TGLA122), with a mean value of 9.5. Total number of alleles at all 12 analyzed loci was 114. PIC (Polymorphism Information Content) values ranged from 0.513 (in BM1818) to 0.905 (TGLA53). Power of exclusion (PE) for single markers ranged from 0.228 (BM1818) to 0.607 (BM2113) and the power of discrimination (PD) from 0.75 (BM1818) to 0.96 (TGLA227). The combined power of exclusion and discrimination was very high (0.999 and 0.995 respectively) when all 12 markers were used in combination. Cervus software performed 96% successful paternity assignments. These results show that the 12 markers set recommended by ISAG can be used with high confidence for forensic purposes in Busha cattle.