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ABSTRACT:The aim of this study was to perform an analysis of genetic diversity in four endangered horse populations bred in Slovakia, describing parameters on the probability of identity by descent and gene origin. The analysed populations consisted of (reference populations in brackets) 656 (158) Hucul horses, 2052 (162) Lipizzan horses, 1951 (171) Shagya Arabian horses, and 220 (42) Slovak Sport Ponies. The equivalent complete generations ranged from 4.93 for the Slovak Sport Pony to 10.25 for the Lipizzan horses. The average value of inbreeding ranged from 2.67% for the Slovak Sport Pony to 6.26% for the Hucul. The mean average relationship coefficients varied from 3.08% for the Shagya Arabian to 9.34% for the Hucul. Individual increases in inbreeding ranged from 0.43% for the Lipizzan to 1.06% for the Hucul, while the realized effective sizes were from 117.14 to 47.67 animals. The evaluated populations were derived from 80 to 499 founders. The effective number of founders ranged from 26 to 160, while the effective number of ancestors from 7 to 32.

The proportional hazards method was used to estimate breeding values for functional length of productive life within the endangered Slovak Pinzgau population. The analyzed data set contained 21,985 cows, daughters of 254 sires. The risk of culling was higher for cows with lower milk production relative to herd average, higher age at first calving and in herds decreasing in size. In the first lactation the culling risk was highest at the beginning, and decreased during lactation. From second lactation onwards an increasing risk was observed. The effect of breed composition was found insignificant, and was not included into final model. A heritability of 0.05 was estimated for functional length of productive life. The average reliability of estimates was 0.25. No clear tendency in average breeding values by year of birth of bulls was observed.

Leptin and leptin receptor genes are considered as production traits markers in dairy or beef cattle. The aim of this study was to verify the associations of polymorphisms in bovine LEP and LEPR genes with production and reproduction traits in Slovak Spotted and Pinzgau cows. Long-life production was evaluated: milk, protein, and fat yield and reproduction traits: age at first calving, calving interval, days open, and insemination interval. In total, 296 blood samples of Slovak Spotted and 85 hair roots samples of Pinzgau cows were analyzed. In order to detect LEP/Sau3AI (BTA 4, inron 2) and LEPR/T945M (BTA 3, exon 20) genotypes PCR-RFLP method was used. In Slovak Spotted and Pinzgau cows allele frequencies were 0.838/0.162 and 0.694/0.306 for A and B LEP variants, and 0.954/0.046 and 0.912/0.088 for C and T LEPR variants, respectively. For testing the associations between SNPs LEP/Sau3AI and LEPR/T945M and evaluated traits, the General Linear Model procedure in SAS Software was used. Statistical analysis showed that SNP LEP/Sau3AI significantly affected milk, protein and fat yield (P

Economic values of clinical mastitis, claw disease, and feed efficiency traits along with 16 additional production and functional traits were estimated for the dairy population of the Slovak Pinzgau breed using a bioeconomic approach. In the cow-calf population (suckler cow population) of the same breed, the economic values of feed efficiency traits along with 15 further production and functional traits were calculated. The marginal economic values of clinical mastitis and claw disease incidence in the dairy system were -€ 70.65 and -€ 26.73 per case per cow and year, respectively. The marginal economic values for residual feed intake were -€ 55.15 and -€ 54.64/kg of dry matter per day for cows and breeding heifers in the dairy system and -€ 20.45, -€ 11.30, and -€ 6.04/kg of dry matter per day for cows, breeding heifers, and fattened animals in the cow-calf system, respectively, all expressed per cow and year. The sums of the relative economic values for the 2 new health traits in the dairy system and for residual feed intake across all cattle categories in both systems were 1.4 and 8%, respectively. Within the dairy production system, the highest relative economic values were for milk yield (20%), daily gain of calves (20%), productive lifetime (10%), and cow conception rate (8%). In the cow-calf system, the most important traits were weight gain of calves from 120 to 210 d and from birth to 120 d (19 and 14%, respectively), productive lifetime (17%), and cow conception rate (13%). Based on the calculation of economic values for traits in the dual-purpose Pinzgau breed, milk production and growth traits remain highly important in the breeding goal, but their relative importance should be adapted to new production and economic conditions. The economic importance of functional traits (especially of cow productive lifetime and fertility) was sufficiently high to make the inclusion of these traits into the breeding goal necessary. An increased interest of consumers in animal welfare and quality of dairy farm products should probably lead to the incorporation of health traits (clinical mastitis incidence and somatic cells score) into the breeding goal. However, keeping carcass traits in the breeding goal of the Slovak Pinzgau breed does not seem to be relevant to the long-term market situation.