Ancient Egyptians used pigeons not only as food in the form of squab but also as a messenger by virtue of their strong
homing ability. Pigeons are bred for many purposes like meat in the form of squabs, exhibition as fancy and ornamental,
flying and sports like racing competition, and finally for laboratory experiments of cognitive sciences. In this study, a total
of pigeon samples of six Egyptian breeds ( ) and Japanese racing pigeons ( ) were surveyed. One sample from
each breed was sequenced for mitochondrial gene and all samples were genotyped across microsatellites loci. From
sequence, all the seven studied populations were found to belong to same the species ( ). By the analysis
of microsatellite loci a total of alleles were observed with an average of . alleles per locus. The expected heterozygosities
of the six Egyptian breeds and Japanese racing pigeons were . and . , respectively. showed a relatively
high mean of . which indicated that there is a great di erentiation among the seven pigeon populations. Zagel breed and
Japanese racing pigeons showed the lowest values for both pairwise ( . ) and Nei’s genetic distance ( . ). The
information from this study would be useful for genetic characterization and provide a foundation for developing sustainable
genetic improvement and conservation programs of this agriculturally and commercially important species. |
