INVESTIGATION OF HEAMOGLOBIN POLYMORPHISM IN TRYPANOTOLERANT SHEKO CATTLE (AFRICAN Bos taurus), BENCH MAJI ZONE, SOUTHWESTERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Sheko is one of the Ethiopian indigenous cattle breed and geographical restricted to Bench Maji Zone and partly in the adjoining parts of Kaffa and Shaka Zones of south west Ethiopia. The breed possess typical characteristics related to disease resistance such as trypanosomosis and well adapted to live in warm and humid environment, produce and reproduce in tsetse infested areas than any other indigenous cattle. The present study aimed to investigate the biochemical polymorphism of Hemoglobin in trypanotolerant sheko cattle. For this , a total of 200 blood samples were collected by jugular vein puncture from 165 Sheko and 35 Zebu cattle. The sample was subjected to agarose gel electrophoresis (pH range 8.4-8.5) to study the polymorphic activities of haemoglobin. The results of the present study showed three types of genotypes (HbAA, HbAB and HbBB). Among the three genotypes the most frequent genotype of HbAB (0.60) observed in sheko while the most frequent genotype observed zebu breed was HbAA (0.52). The least frequent genotype HbBB appeared at gene frequency of 0.02 in sheko and 0.2 in zebu cattle respectively. The gene frequency of HbA allele was 0.68 and that of HbB allele was 0.32 in sheko cattle. On the other hand, HbA and HbB allele’s frequencies in zebu cattle were 0.66 and 0.34 respectively. The Hemoglobin polymorphism was found to be statically significant in both breeds (P<0.005). The Chi-square (χ2) test revealed that the population is not under Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. This suggests there is a force that small population size might affect gene and hence genotype frequency in a population and lead to the violation of Hardy Weinberg equilibrium. To obtain a clear over view about gene and genomic structure of sheko; whole genome sequence should be conducted.