A Genetic Make Up of Italian Lipizzan Horse Through Uniparental Markers to Preserve Historical Pedigrees

Abstract

The Lipizzan is a famous horse breed dating back to 1580 when the original stud of Lipica was established by the Hasburg Archduke Charles II. The stud was intended to supply the court in Graz with riding and light carriage horses. Nowadays, several State Studs derived from the Austrian–Hungarian Empire with slightly differentiated breeding goals are present in eight European Countries. The Lipizzan world population is small, gene flows are limited, and the breed is at risk of genetic erosion. Currently, the Italian State Stud of Lipizzan Horses (ASCAL) is a conservation nucleus managed through strict mating rules where mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences are used to verify the correct assignment of mares to a historical pedigree maternal lineage. In order to preserve the genetic variability of the Lipizzan horse breed, we performed mtDNA analyses focused on maintaining all pedigree maternal lines (eleven) in the stud, and an evaluation of the variability in the male-specific region of the Y chromosome (MSY), which revealed a Neapolitan/Oriental origin of Lipizzan stallions.