GENETIC-ANALYSIS OF THE CROATIAN TRAKEHNER AND POSAVINA HORSE BREEDS

Genetic marker analysis was performed on 98 Posavina horse and 16 Trak ehner horse blood samples from Croatian populations. All samples were tested for genetic types at seven red blood cell alloantigen (blood gr oup) loci and ten biochemical genetic loci. The results were analyzed to determine genetic variability levels within the breeds and to exami ne genetic relationships of the horse breeds from Croatia with other b reeds of domestic horses. Genetic variability within the Trakehner hor se was relatively low compared to the mean for domestic horses. Mean u nbiased expected heterozygosity for 87 populations of domestic breeds was 0.442 (STD = 0.045) compared to 0.398 for the Trakehner horse form Croatia. In contrast, genetic variation in the Posavina horse was rel atively high with an unbiassed expected heterozygosity of 0.495. Compa risons of observed and expected heterozygosity within both breeds show ed no evidence of inbreeding. Here we reported on gene marker frequenc ies for the Posavina horse and Trakehner horse from Croatia and geneti c resemblance of these horse breeds to other domestic breeds as estima ted by restricted maximum likelihood techniques.