Population genetics of Great Basin feral horses

The genetic make-up of Great Basin wild (feral) horses was investigated by blood typing studies. Blood samples of 975 feral horses from seven trap sites in Nevada and Oregon were tested by serological and electrophoretic techniques for genetic markers at 19 polymorphic loci. The average number of variants for the seven feral populations [72.1 +/- 3.2 (SEM), range 62-85] was not significantly different from that of 16 domestic breeds (75.0 +/- 11.5, range 58-105). The expected average frequency of heterozygotes per locus (average heterozygosity) for the feral populations (0.402 +/- 0.009, range 0.368-0.442) was not significantly different from the domestic breeds (0.389 +/- 0.045, range 0.295-0.443). Dendrograms constructed using pairwise comparisons of Nei's distance measurements substantiated anecdotal accounts of the origins of Great Basin horses from Iberian, American saddle horse and draft horse breeds.