EFFICIENT RESOLUTION OF PARENTAGE IN DOGS BY AMPLIFICATION OF MICROSATELLITES

Parentage control has been performed for 15 litters from 12 different dog breeds by amplification of microsatellites. As it was possible to include all putative parents in all cases, they were solved by exclusi on. Discrimination between parents/non-parents was made after genotypi ng of 6-9 microsatellite loci. In 12 of the cases all but one of the a lleged fathers were excluded while in three cases it was unambiguously shown that superfecundation had taken place. Furthermore, one inclusi on case concerning disputed maternity has been investigated. Maternity indices were calculated for 12 loci and probability of maternity was estimated to be 99.99%. These results testify that microsatellites can be applied very efficiently for resolution of parentage in dogs.