In this study, 21 microsatellite markers were used to genotype 196 Egyptian local chickens obtained from Fayoumi (n = 35), Dandarawy (n = 30), Baladi (n = 29), Sinai (n = 30), El-Salam (n = 36), and Golden Montazah (n = 36) strains. The results were compared to two pure commercial chicken populations reared in Japan-White Leghorn (n = 42) and Rhode Island Red (n = 43). A total of 162 alleles were observed, with an aver-age of 7.7 alleles per locus. The average expected heterozygosity for the Egyptian chickens was 0.595. The closest pairwise Nei’s genetic dis-tance was recorded between Sinai and Golden Montazah (0.038) and the smallest pairwise FST value (0.006) was observed between Baladi and Sinai. The most probable structure clustering of the eight studied populations was at K = 6. Baladi, Sinai and Golden Montazah strains were clustered together forming admixed mosaic cluster. Dandarawy ranked firstly and contrib-uted the most to aggregate genetic diversity based on two prioritization methods. The infor-mation resulting from this study may be used as an initial guide to design further investigations for development of sustainable genetic improve- ment and conservation programs for the Egyp-tian chicken genetic resources. |
