Preliminary Investigation of Haemoglobin Polymorphism among Indigenous Cattle in North Western Nigeria

The goal of this research was to identify the genetic pool of the Bunaji and Sokoto-Gudali cows
using haemoglobin (Hb) polymorphism. Blood samples were collected from a total of 150 mature Bunaji, Sokoto-Gudali and HolsteinXBunaji cows in north western Nigeria. To reveal the band patterns of haemoglobin, the red cell lysates were treated to cellulose acetate electrophoresis and a particular staining process. Individual cattle were found to have three co-dominant alleles, resulting in three genotypes (AA, AB, and AC). The A and B alleles had gene frequencies of 0.62 and 0.38, respectively. In the cattle population, the corresponding genotype frequencies for AA, AB, and AC were 0.34, 0.57, and 0.10, respectively. The variation between the observed and the expected genotype number was not significant (P>0.05) thereby conforming with Hardy-Weinberg frequencies. There is a need for further study to determine the association between morphological traits with haemoglobin polymorphism using high resolution DNA markers for detailed understanding of health status and breed characteristics of indigenous cattle in north western Nigeria.