Morphological and Genetic Characteristics of Zerdava, A Native Turkish Dog Breed

Abstract

Zerdava dogs are considered as one of the many native animal genetic resources of Turkey. However, the genetic characteristics of these dogs and detailed phenotypic studies related to them have not been reported yet.The aim of this study was to determine the morphological and genetic characteristics of Zerdava dogs. Blood samples (n = 100) were collected from Zerdava dogs. The morphological characteristics of these dogs were also taken. The mean live weights of Zerdava dogs were found to be 16.02 +/- 0.35 kg. The mean withers height, rump height and body length were measured as 48.20 +/- 0.21, 47.08 +/- 0.24 and 51.24 +/- 0.23 cm, respectively. According to the results of microsatellite markers, the mean Fn (inbreeding coefficient) value was documented as 0.03611-0.0003. Observed (Ho) and expected heterozygosity (He) values were found to be 0.708 +/- 0.091 and 0.694 +/- 0.077, respectively. In addition, the frequency of A018 (72%) and 8001 (16%) haplotypes were high in Zerdava dogs. The mitochondria' DNA sequence results show that the majority of Zerdava dogs originate from two different maternal lines. According to the results, the phenotypic and genotypic variations of Zerdava dogs were low. Therefore, these results may suggest that Zerdava dogs may have been protected by local breeders and can be considered a separate breed.