Analysis of the Genetic Structure of the Hereford Population Bred in Kazakhstan

Abstract

Animal breeding is the main agricultural branch in the Republic of Kazakhstan, which is facing important tasks like providing food for the population and raw materials for the consumer industry. For this purpose, not only the conditions of animal feeding and the technology of fodder preparation are to be improved, but also new promising methods of increasing animals productivity are to be developed and introduced, and brought into conformity with the requirements that involve new types of animals, the physiology of which is determined by higher productivity and adaptability to the intense conditions of the environment and exploitation. Today’s DNA technologies allow speeding up the rate of breeding and reducing the financial costs in course of classic animal breeding. MAS-breeding relies on the information about phenotypic manifestations of alleles of the genes that are responsible for quantitative traits (candidate genes) and allows assessing the genetic potential of animal productivity in the early stages of postnatal development. The genes in the somatotropin cascade are polymorphic; a wide range of alleles has been identified in cattle, which are of interest for MAS breeding as genetic markers for economically useful traits. Since Hereford cattle is currently being massively purchased within the limits of large-scale government programs, it is important to study the association of the alleles of the genes in the somatotropin cascade with the traits of meat productivity in the cattle of this breed.