Proceeding of Veterinary and Animal Science Days 2016, 8th- 10th June, Milan, Italy 

HAF © 2013 

Vol. III, No. 1s  ISSN: 2283-3927 

   

 

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Keywords 

Goat, ROH, Pakistan, Italy, Egypt 

 

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR 

Andrea Talenti 

andrea.talenti@unimi.it 

 

JOURNAL HOME PAGE 

riviste.unimi.it/index.php/haf 

Initial genomic characterization of Italian, 

Egyptian and Pakistani goat breeds. 

A. Talentia*, F. Bertolinib, S.Frattinib, A. Elbeltagyb,c, G. Pagnaccoa, 

B. Coizeta, A. M. Aboul-Nagac, J. M. Reecyb, M. Moaeen-ud-Dind, M. 

F. Rothschildb, P. Crepaldia and the Italian Goat Consortium. 

 

a Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Milan, Milan, Italy. 

b Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA. 

c Animal Production Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Cairo, Egypt 

d Laboratories of Animal Breeding & Genetics, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, 
Rawalpindi, Pakistan 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abstract 
Selection and breeding practices in goats have differed greatly among countries and populations. 

These processes, together with natural selection and regional drift, have shaped the phenotypic 

variability of goat breeds (Kim et al., 2015). The availability of improved genomic analysis tools for 

this species may provide useful information on the history of selection, adaptation and 

differentiation of goats from different areas of the world, that can be evaluated by the study of 

gene frequencies and length of the Runs of Homozigosity (contiguous length of homozygous 

genotypes, ROH; Purfield et al., 2012). In current study, we examined using a goat medium density 

SNP chip animals from three different countries: Egypt (with lack of selection scheme), Italy (with 

several standardized breeds; Nicoloso et al., 2015) and Pakistan (with several breeds showing 

peculiar phenotypes) to produce a genomic landscape of goats breeds in these countries. A total 

of 1,123 animals of 39 different populations, and 48,895 SNP markers were analyzed. Genotypes 

were imputed on a country-based approach, and markers without known position in the genome 

were excluded from the analysis. MDS and ADMIXTURE plots confirmed the good differentiation 

among populations from the three countries. Runs of Homozygosity (ROH) were performed for 

each country and population allowed the detection of genomic regions with high homozygosity 

levels, common in at least two out of three sampling areas. These results provide new insights into 

goat genome structure within and among breeds and countries. The detection of conserved 

regions with different lengths may explain recent selection strategies or adaptation to different, 

extreme environmental conditions. The research was funded by INNOVAGEN project. Support by 

Iowa State University and the Ensminger funds for AE and AT as well as support by the Fulbright 

Foundation for AE are gratefully acknowledged. Sampling from Pakistan was funded by PAK-USAID 

project. 

References 

Kim, E-S, A R Elbeltagy, A M Aboul-Naga, B Rischkowsky, B Sayre, J M Mwacharo, and M F Rothschild., 2015. Multiple Genomic Signatures of Selection in Goats and Sheep Indigenous to a Hot 

Arid Environment. Heredity 116, 255–264. 

Nicoloso, L., L. Bomba, L. Colli, R. Negrini, M. Milanesi, R. Mazza, T. Sechi, et al., 2015. Genetic Diversity of Italian Goat Breeds Assessed with a Medium-Density SNP Chip. Genetics Selection 

Evolution 47:62. 

Purfield, Deirdre C, Donagh P Berry, Sinead McParland, and Daniel G Bradley., 2012. Runs of Homozygosity and Population History in Cattle. BMC Genetics 13:70. 

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