Blood protein polymorphism and differentiation of selected indigenous cattle breeds in Nigeria

Genetic variation is the basis of effective improvement in farm animals. Population differentiation is used for objective choice of parental genotypes that constitutes new hybrids in crossbreeding. In Nigeria, population characteristics of selected indigenous cattle breeds have not been fully documented. Therefore, blood protein electrophoretic patterns of selected indigenous cattle breeds in Nigeria were assessed. Blood samples (5mL) were taken underneath the tail by venipuncture from 40 cattle randomly selected from each of the five breeds. The samples were subjected to cellulose acetate electrophoresis to determine the genetic variants of haemoglobin (Hb), carbonic anhydrase (CA) and transferrin (Tf) following standard procedure. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, cluster analysis and Euclidean genetic distance. Allele frequencies ranged between 0.10 (Hb ) and 0.90 (Hb ), 0.11 (CA ) and 0.89 (CA ) and 0.02 (Tf ) and 0.49 (Tf ) across the breed.Two main clusters from the dendrogram were observed for each of Hb, CA and Tf. Euclidean genetic distance at the blood protein polymorphism level between WF and SG, WF and RB, WF and BK, WF and Muturu were 29, 30, 80 and 93, respectively. Genetic variants of transferring were largest within breed which indicated potential for selection