Morphometric characterization and estimating body weight of two Algerian camel breeds using morphometric measurements

This study was carried out in order to identify the body measurements of two different Dromedary camel breeds raised in Algeria. The animal material of the study consisted of a total of 115 animals belong to Steppe (n = 55) and Sahraoui (n = 60) camel breeds. Eye and coat colors along with body measurements such as head length, neck length, neck girth, tail length, distance between eyes, distance between ears, body length, withers height, chest girth, and live weight were determined. Least squares means for head length, neck length, neck girth, tail length, distance between eyes, distance between ears, body length, withers height, chest girth, and live weight are found 48.2, 116.9, 65.7, 55.6, 24.1, 22.5, 152.2, 184.5, 141.2 cm, and 217.2 kg for Steppe and 48.1, 101.2, 56.2, 51.2, 23.4, 18.3, 135.6, 167.3, 176.8 cm, and 298.9 kg for Sahraoui camel breeds, respectively. The distribution of brown and black eye colors for the Steppe camel breed is as 58.2% and 41.8%, respectively, while all of the Sahraoui camels studied had a brown eye color. The proportional distribution in terms of body color included are coffee, dark coffee, and red colors for 1.8%, 83.6%, and 14.6% in the Steppe camel and 98.3%, 1.7%, and 0.0% for the Sahraoui camel, respectively. As a result, this study concluded that the withers height and chest girth could estimate the body weight in the two breeds of camels with different ages.

Genetic characterization of four Algerian cattle breeds using microsatellite markers

Cattle plays a very important role in agriculture and food security in Algeria. In the present study, the genetic diversity and structure of Algerian indigenous cattle populations were evaluated by microsatellite markers. A total of 138 individuals belonging to four cattle breed populations were characterized using 22 microsatellite markers. A total of 360 alleles was detected across studied all loci. Results obtained for the mean number of alleles (16.36), expected heterozygosity (0.84) and polymorphic information content (0.82) indicated that the total analyzed populations are characterized by noticeable genetic variability. It can be said that there is a low genetic differentiation in the cattle populations studied considering obtained mean F_ST value (0.039). It was revealed 97.10% of the total genetic variation can be explained by genetic differences among individuals while 2.90% among populations. The structure, factorial correspondence analysis results and dendrogram showed that cattle populations studied are clustered in three groups. The present study has revealed an important knowledge about the genetic diversity and the relationship between some native cattle breeds raised in Algeria. The results showed that the breeds studied have a high genetic diversity. Moreover, it can be said that microsatellite markers used can be successfully used to determine genetic diversity and population structure in Algerian cattle breeds.

Weak Genetic Structure in Northern African Dromedary Camels Reflects Their Unique Evolutionary History

Knowledge on genetic diversity and structure of camel populations is fundamental for sustainable herd management and breeding program implementation in this species. Here we characterized a total of 331 camels from Northern Africa, representative of six populations and thirteen Algerian and Egyptian geographic regions, using 20 STR markers. The nineteen polymorphic loci displayed an average of 9.79 ± 5.31 alleles, ranging from 2 (CVRL8) to 24 (CVRL1D). Average H_e was 0.647 ± 0.173. Eleven loci deviated significantly from Hardy-Weinberg proportions (P<0.05), due to excess of homozygous genotypes in all cases except one (CMS18). Distribution of genetic diversity along a weak geographic gradient as suggested by network analysis was not supported by either unsupervised and supervised Bayesian clustering. Traditional extensive/nomadic herding practices, together with the historical use as a long-range beast of burden and its peculiar evolutionary history, with domestication likely occurring from a bottlenecked and geographically confined wild progenitor, may explain the observed genetic patterns.