Genetic diversity analyses of tropical goats from some countries of Middle East

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The genetic structure of 10 goat breeds from four countries of the Middle East and Horn of Africa was investigated at 17 microsatellite loci. The average allele number and richness were 9.65 and 5.78, respectively. The mean expected heterozygosity per population was 0. 703, 0.715, 0.719, 0.699, 0.749, 0.719, 0.731, 0.721, 0.719, and 0.730 for Somali from Somalia, Tohami, Bishi, Jabali, Ardi, and Saudi Damascus from Saudi Arabia, Black Bedouin, Sahrawi, and Jordanian Damascus from Jordan, and Syrian Damascus from Syria. The low level of genetic differentiation across large topographic features was expressed by pairwise difference coefficient (F ST = 0.001-0.135). The goats were assigned to four genetic pools, indicating the occurrence of gene flow within a potential genetic exchange network. The genetic exchange possibly occurred in the past when the ancient trade routes -Incense and Pilgrimage Routes -were active in these countries. Despite the distances far by thousands of kilometers or separated by the boundaries, Saudi goats kept a reasonable level of admixture, indicating common ancestry. These results are in agreement with a known history of the goat populations in regards to geographical

A comparative study on the growth rate and survivability of three goat breeds from Jordan

“…Goats are well adapted under different geographical and environmental conditions including harsh climate in Jordan (Al-Dawood 2015, 2017a, 2017b, 2017c, and perform better than other domesticated ruminants. Jordanian goats have recently received much attention by researchers who so far identified and characterized several native breeds (Zaitoun et al 2005;Al-Atiyat et al 2012;Al-Atiyat 2014, 2017Al-Atiyat, Alobre et al 2015;Al-Atiyat, Tamimi et al 2015). The most common goat breeds in Jordan are Mountain Black (Baladi), Damascus (Shami) and their crossbred between Baladi and Shami, which is called 'Hybrid' (Zaitoun et al 2005).…”