Microsatellite markers based genetic diversity and bottleneck studies in Zanskari pony

Genetic diversity in Zanskari pony breed was evaluated at 48 microsatellite loci using fifty adult, healthy and unrelated animals. Allele frequency data was used to detect genetic diversity and bottleneck. The estimated average number of alleles (±s.e.) was 8.5208±2.5010 with a total of 409 alleles. A high level of genetic diversity within this breed was observed in terms of number of alleles, observed heterozygosity (0.6763±0.1704), expected Leven's heterozygosity (0.7724±0.795), expected Nei's heterozygosity (0.7644±0.0787) and polymorphism information content (>0.5). In-breeding coefficient (F(is)) was 0.115±0.0209, suggesting moderately high in-breeding in Zanskari breed. Although analysis of bottleneck revealed no bottleneck in recent past but population of Zanskari ponies has decreased drastically and only a few thousand pure-bred animals are left. The information is useful for proposing effective population management strategies for future.