Abstract
The state of the local breeds of farm animals is increasingly precarious worldwide because of the aggressive introduction of breeds with improved economical traits. The preference of the breeders for local breeds is due to their higher adaptability to the particular climate and relief conditions of the mountain areas, to the high rate of assimilation of the feeds from these regions and to their increased resistance to diseases. This study analyzes the genetic variation of the main four local Romanian sheep breeds (Tsurcana, Tsigai, Ratska and Teleorman Blackhead) in terms of stock and economic importance, using 18 microsatellite markers. The mean number of alleles per locus was of 9.764. The values of genetic diversity parameters exhibited a high degree of polymorphism for the analyzed breeds, although inbreeding was highlighted particularly in Tsurcana and Tsigai. These breeds also showed an intense gene flow among them and were less differentiated in comparison with Ratska and Teleorman Blackhead. The results of this study may be useful for breeding programs and conservation plans since the genetic resources of the local breeds must be preserved so as to maintain an adequate level of biodiversity in animal husbandry.
Highlights
The diversity of the local breeds in Romania is very high, even nowadays, firstly because of the high variety of relief forms, implicitly of the existing ecological systems, as well as because of the substantial inflow of animals from abroad, especially at the end of the First World War when territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire returned to Romania
Significant erosion of the local genetic resources has been noticed as of the 20th century, but it seems that this phenomenon has affected the local Romanian sheep breeds rather little
The results showed high levels of genetic variability for all local sheep breeds from Romania
Summary
The diversity of the local breeds in Romania is very high, even nowadays, firstly because of the high variety of relief forms, implicitly of the existing ecological systems, as well as because of the substantial inflow of animals from abroad, especially at the end of the First World War when territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire returned to Romania. Significant erosion of the local genetic resources has been noticed as of the 20th century, but it seems that this phenomenon has affected the local Romanian sheep breeds rather little This is due to the rearing of the different local breeds in limited, geographically isolated areas where the farmers use traditional systems. Tsurcana is the most numerous and widespread sheep breed from Romania and is the starting point of all Wallachian (Zackel) sheep breeds in central and eastern Europe (Ilisiu et al, 2013). This breed has good aptitudes for walking, as well as a high capacity for adapting to difficult environmental conditions, high resistance to diseases and a high capacity to use roughages. The Teleorman Blackhead is a local breed that has been reared for a long time in southern Romania, in the Danube meadows, which
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