Population study and validation of paternity testing for Thoroughbred horses by 15 microsatellite loci

Microsatellite 15 TKY System was characterized for parentage verification of horse registry. The Microsatellite 15 TKY System was constructed by using 15 microsatellites, TKY279, TKY287, TKY294, TKY297, TKY301, TKY312, TKY321, TKY325, TKY333, TKY337, TKY341, TKY343, TKY344, TKY374, and TKY394, to provide stringent PCR-based microsatellite typing specifically optimized for multicolor fluorescence detection. The Microsatellite 15 TKY System showed good resolutions for 250 unrelated Thoroughbred horses, and the probability of exclusion (PE) at each microsatellite ranged from 0.437 to 0.621, resulting in a total PE value of 99.998% for Thoroughbred horses. These results indicated that the Microsatellite 15 TKY System is useful for paternity testing of Thoroughbred horses. A paternity testing case for a Thoroughbred horse family, in which candidate sires had close relations, was analyzed using the Microsatellite 15 TKY System. In this case, the Microsatellite 15 TKY System excluded paternity of a false sire. We concluded that the Microsatellite 15 TKY System can give sufficient and reliable information for paternity testing.