Genetic Structure of the European Limousin Cattle Metapopulation Using Pedigree Analyses

Pedigree collected by the Interbeef service permitted to assess genetic diversity of 5 European Limousin cattle populations respectively from Denmark, France, Ireland, Sweden and United- Kingdom using pedigree analyses. Analyzed populations included 1 652 734 calves with age-adjusted weaning weights whose 91.9% were recorded in France, 4.9% in United-Kingdom, 1.8% in Denmark, 0.9% in Sweden and 0.5% in Ireland. Pedigree file included 2 409 659 animals whose 82.5% originated from FRA, 11.1% from DNK, 4.9% from UK, 0.8% from IRL, and 0.7% from SWE. Gene flows were rather limited between populations, except from France towards other countries. Pedigree knowledge was good in all 5 subpopulations and allowed tracing pedigree back to the French population. Therefore, between 71% and 96% founders of calves born between 1989 and 2008 were of French origin. In each population, it was shown that founders but also ancestors had unbalanced genetic contributions: the main 10 ancestors explained 20% of gene origin in France and about 25% in other European populations. Although main ancestors of each European subpopulation were often born in France, only a few animals were common amongst main ancestors which explained 50% of gene origin in two different countries. Moreover, main ancestors which explained 50% of gene origin respectively in Denmark, Ireland, Sweden and United-Kingdom were not found to be frequently used in France. Therefore, the subdivision of the Limousin cattle population allowed maintaining genetic diversity between populations.