Equine

Genetic diversity and population structure of the Polish Felin Pony breed

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Abstract

The Felin Pony is a Polish breed of riding pony-type horses. It was developed as a crossbreed of several breeds: Polish Konik, Hucul horse, purebred Arabian, Malopolski horse, Shetland Pony, and Welsh Pony. In this study, we investigated the genetic diversity, structure, and relationships of the Felin Pony and representatives of breeds used in its breeding of Felin Pony. All breeds were examined, except for the Welsh Pony, due to the lack of a sufficient number of representatives of this breed.We conducted a study of 141 individuals of the Felin Pony and 196 individuals of other breeds using pedigree data and 17 microsatellite markers (STRs) from parentage testing.The mean number of alleles for the whole studied breeds was from 7.882 (±0.506) to 4.941 (±0.264), while the effective mean number of alleles was from 4.649 (±0.333) to 3.235 (±0.217). The mean value of expected heterozygosity was from 0.762 (±0.021) to 0.666 (±0.024). And it was quite similar to observed heterozygosity in particular breeds: from 0.764 (±0.024) to 0.656 (±0.047).Population assignment outcomes for Felin Pony were 15.573% and 19 individuals came from other populations.Structural analysis aimed to assign individuals to clusters identified by using the Bayesian algorithm to estimate if they corresponded to the number of breeds. Ten independent simulations for each of K = 2 to K = 8 were used to identify the most likely K describing our data set. The optimal value was estimated as K = 4. The Felin Pony was clustering with purebred Arabian, as well as Malopolski horse and Shetland Pony.This study presents our preliminary analysis results and requires further investigation and verification in larger populations per breed. And also adding the individuals of Welsh Pony breed population. Further research would include more individuals in every breed and to adequately describe of Felin Pony horse.The study was supported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development RP (Grant No. 503-182-609).

Keywords: 2026

How to Cite:

Bieniek, A., Szulowska, J. & Piestrzynska-Kajtoch, A., (2026) “Genetic diversity and population structure of the Polish Felin Pony breed”, World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production Digital Archive 2026(1): 2285922. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/wcgalp.23822

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