EFFICIENCY OF MICROSATELLITE MARKERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD PANEL FOR PARENTAGE CONTROL IN GERMAN HORSE POPULATION

The recently used international set of twelve microsatellites was eval uated for its suitability to ensure reliable parentage testing in 14 h orse breeds of different German breeding associations. Genotyping was done after PCR amplification of the alleles on an automated DNA-sequen cer (ABI 373). Heterozygosity was moderate to high with values of obse rved heterozygosity ranging between 0.45 and 1.0 Combined exclusion pr obabilities greater than 99% were found in all breeds when using just six to nine microsatellites. Therefore in most cases the set of twelve loci should be sufficient to use the criterion that an exclusion must be based on genetic incompatibility in mon than one locus.