Abstract
The Norwegian Lundehund is a highly endangered native dog breed. Low fertility and high frequency predisposition to intestinal disorder imply inbreeding depression. We assessed the genetic diversity of the Lundehund population from pedigree data and evaluated the potential of optimal contribution selection and cross-breeding in the long-term management of the Lundehund population. The current Norwegian Lundehund population is highly inbred and has lost 38.8% of the genetic diversity in the base population. Effective population size estimates varied between 13 and 82 depending on the method used. Optimal contribution selection alone facilitates no improvement in the current situation in the Lundehund due to the extremely high relatedness of the whole population. Addition of (replacement with) 10 breeding candidates of foreign breed to 30 Lundehund breeders reduced the parental additive genetic relationship by 40–42% (48–53%). Immediate actions are needed to increase the genetic diversity in the current Lundehund population. The only option to secure the conservation of this rare breed is to introduce individuals from foreign breeds as breeding candidates.
Highlights
The Norwegian Lundehund is a highly endangered dog breed, native to Norway [1], listed as a national Norwegian dog breed
The same level of pedigree completeness index (PCI) was reached in the early 1980s and late 1970s for PCI7 and PCI5, respectively
Breeding optimisation, including Optimal contribution selection (OCS), offer no remedy unless individuals of foreign breed are introduced to the Lundehund
Summary
The Norwegian Lundehund is a highly endangered dog breed, native to Norway [1], listed as a national Norwegian dog breed. The name of the Norwegian Lundehund originates from its function to retrieve puffins alive (Fratercula arctica, lunde in Norwegian) from their nests in screes and burrows on steep mountainsides along the Northern Norwegian coast [1,2]. Lundehund were highly appreciated and secured both income (down feather) and food for families living in fisherman’s villages near seabird colonies [1]. In the 1850s hunting with nets became popular and the need for Lundehund disappeared. At the outbreak of the Second World War the population size was 50 individuals [1]. Since the Lundehund population experienced two severe bottlenecks. As a result the current Lundehund population stems from only a very few related individuals
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