Molecular genetic polymorphism at the κ-casein and β-lactoglobulin loci in Finnish dairy hulls

Authors

• Riikka Velmala Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, Institute of Animal Production, Section of Animal Breeding, FIN-31600 Jokioinen, Finland
• Esa A. Mäntysaari Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, Institute of Animal Production, Section of Animal Breeding, FIN-31600 Jokioinen, Finland
• Asko Mäki-Tanila Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, Institute of Animal Production, Section of Animal Breeding, FIN-31600 Jokioinen, Finland

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23986/afsci.72669

Abstract

Dairy bulls have been genotyped for K-casein and P-lactoglobulin from semen samples by methodology based on a polymerase chain reaction (PCR), In this study, a previously described method for κ-casein A and B variants was extended to cover also the detection of the E variant. For β-lactoglobulin the variants A and B were genotyped by another PCR-based method. The frequencies of the κ-casein and β-lactoglobulin alleles were determined from 308 and 291 Finnish Ayrshire and 42 and 44 Finnish Friesian bulls, respectively. The bulls had been born between 1973 and 1988. There was no noticeable trend in the differences between allele frequencies over the years, the overall frequencies of κ-casein A, B and E being 0.62, 0.09 and 0.29 in the Finnish Ayrshires and 0.85, 0.14 and 0.01 in Finnish Friesians. The overall frequencies of β-lactoglobulin A and B alleles were 0.25 and 0.75 in Ayrshires and 0.56 and 0.44 in Friesians