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Abstract

Background. Hungarian draft is a horse breed with a recent mixed ancestry. The interest in their conservation and characterization has increased over the last few years. It was developed in the 1920s by crossing local mares with draught horses imported from France and Belgium. The aim of this work is to contribute to the characterization of the endangered Hungarian heavy draft horse populations in order to obtain useful information to implement conservation strategies for these genetic stocks.Methods. To genetically characterize the breed and to set up the basis for a conservation programme, in this present study a hypervariable region of the mithocrondial DNA (D-loop) was used to assess genetic diversity in Hungarian draft horses. Two hundred and eighty five sequences obtained in our laboratory and 419 downloaded sequences available from Genbank were analyzed. Results.One hundred and sixty-four haplotypes were revealed. Thirty-six polymorphic sites were observed. High haplotype and nucleotide diversity values (H d =0.954±0.004; π=0.028±0.0004) were identified in Hungarian populations, although they were higher within than among the total number of breeds (H d =0.972±0.002; π=0.03097±0.002). Fourteen of the previously observed seventeen haplogroups were detected. Discussion. Our samples showed a large intra-and interbreed variation. There were no clear clustering on the median joining tree. The overall information given in this work led us to consider that the genetic scenario of this breed is more likely to be due to 'ancestrally' different genetic backrounds. This study could contribute to the development of a detailed breeding plan of Hungarian draft horse and help to formulate its genetic conservation plan, with the aim of increasing the population size, but avoiding inbreeding while, on the other hand, also facilitating genetic exchange among the populations. Background. Hungarian draft is a horse breed with a recent mixed ancestry. The interest in