Mapping of Nordic Horses will Contribute to Improved Conservation Efforts for Threatened Breeds
New project will gather knowledge for future development of conservation plans for the Nordic horse breeds.
They all have four legs, fur, and mane. But how are the Nordic horse breeds related? This is what the NordGen Farm Animals with partners will focus on in a three year long project. One of the aims of the project is to gather knowledge for future development of conservation plans for the breeds.
The project, which is a result of the Nordic Native Horse Network coordinated by NordGen, consists of a research group with bioinformaticians, animal geneticists and representatives of the native horse associations. Together, they will characterize the Nordic native horse breeds. In the initial phase, samples from close to 100 Swedish and Norwegian horses from seven different breeds have been collected. ”The samples will be DNA-sequenced, which means that we can collect a lot of information about the horses’ genetic diversity, as well as unique, and common gene variants. This information can be used to detect kinship patterns among the Nordic breeds and find which genes contribute to breeding specific traits. With detailed mapping of the horses’ genomes, we can also get more knowledge about the prevalence of genetic diseases. This is important information for efficient breeding management and needed to develop well informed conservation plans to make sure the breeds will be here in the future as well”, says Maria Kjetså, Animal Scientist at NordGen Farm Animals and Coordinator in the project. The collaborating partners are NordGen, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), and the Norwegian Horse Center. The research is funded by Stiftelsen Hästforskning. Within the project, genetic characterization will be used as a tool to gather knowledge about sustainable breeding of the Nordic native horse breeds. The project will continue until the end of 2024.
Many Horse Breeds are at Risk
The population status of the Nordic horse breeds differs. The very popular Icelandic horse is an export success and about hundred thousand individuals are spread around the world. However, for most other Nordic horse breeds the trend looks worse. For example, the Faroese horse, and the Norwegian Nordland/Lyngen Horse, is at risk of becoming extinct. If measures are not taken to reverse the negative trend in number of the Nordic native horses, we run the risk of losing many of these breeds forever. “It is vital for us that the results from the project will be available to the ones working with the Nordic horse breeds. It is of course important for the continuous breeding work that the breeders have as much information as possible to make well informed decisions to improve the future of their breeds. Characterization of the breeds are also important to be able to make claims regarding how important these breeds are”, says Maria Kjetså.
Collecting samples
To choose which individuals should represent their breeds, the project members have studied the pedigrees to make sure they are not closely related and represent the variation in the breed. Samples from between 20 and 30 horses from each breed have already been collected and all together the plan is to get DNA sequences from around 200 individual horses. During the fall, the last samples will be collected before the DNA-analyses will commence. Thereafter, the results on breed level will be analyzed and shared will all interested, with a particular focus on the breeding organizations. Samples have or will be collected from these breeds: North Swedish Horse Swedish Ardennes Gotland Pony Swedish and Norwegian Coldblooded Trotter Dole Horse Nordland/Lyng Horse Norwegian Fjord Horse Faroese Horse In addition to these breeds, the project members are also collaborating with researchers in Iceland, Finland and Denmark to be able to use DNA information which have been collected previously, in order to get a better genetic picture of the native Nordic horse breeds.