TITLE:
Association between microsatellite markers and bovine tuberculosis in Chadian Zebu cattle
AUTHORS:
Abdirahman A. Ali, Peter C. Thomson, Haja N. Kadarmideen
KEYWORDS:
Bovine Tuberculosis; Breeding Disease-Resistant Cattle; Genetic Markers; Mycobaterium bovis; African Cattle
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Animal Sciences,
Vol.3 No.1,
January
24,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Bovine tuberculosis (BTB) is a considerable threat to livestock keepers
and public health in many developing and underdeveloped countries. We investigated associations between 20 microsatellite markers and three phenotypes for BTB in a sample of the Chadian cattle population.
The phenotypes measured were: 1) single intra-dermal comparative cervical
tuberculin test (SICCT) performed on live animals, 2) presence of lesion post-slaughter, 3) a bacteriological tissue culture test for Mycobacterium
bovis using the samples with observed lesions and 4) a predicted Bayesian
model (BM) estimate of a true BTB disease status using all tested animals. All
traits were recorded in binary form and as either 1 = presence or 0 = absence.
A total of 224 animals for SICCT, lesion and BM traits and 96 animals with
bacteriological culture test were genotyped. Generalised linear models were fitted
to the binary BTB phenotypes that consisted of age (covariate), sex (2 levels),
breed (2 levels) and markers (alleles: 5 - 14 levels) as explanatory variables
and implemented in R using glm with a logit link function. The model was fitted
for each marker, separately. Six out of 20 markers tested were significantly
associated with at least one trait considered; these were ILSTS005, ILSTS006,
TGLA227, BM2113 and CSRM66. Genomic regions around these markers may serve as a
basis for further functional investigations. This is the first study to report
association of microsatellite markers with bovine tuberculosis traits in African
or Chadian cattle population.