CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

A more common than though percentage of reproductive alterations and unexplained infertilities observed in horses are related to chromosomal abnormalities mainly associated to the sexual pair. However, most of them remains undiagnosed due to the difficulty in ths kind of analysis, the lack of interest and knowledge among breeders and veterinarians in this of abnormalities. Since a few years ago the laboratory of Animal Cytogenetic of the University of Cordoba is working with the Spanish Purebred (SPB) Breeders Association using a diagnose strategy combining, microsattelitte markers and conventional and molecular cytogenetic techniques. All individuals showing abnormal or uncertain results in the STR´ based paternity test, phenotypic abnormalities or unexplained infertility were submitted to a complementary microsatellites panel specifically linked to sexual pair and to cytogenetic analysis. Using this strategy, we detected in the last year 9 equines presenting chromosomal abnormalities, including a 64, XX; a sex reversal 64,XX; a 63,X0 / 64,XY; two cases of 63,X0 / 64,XY (one mosaicism and one quimerism) and three cases of 64,XY sex reversal. It is interesting that some of these animals didn´t show any morphologic or physiologic abnormality in a preliminary analyses. However, their complements were detected as abnormal after the evaluation of the routinely STR markers used as filiation test. In the last year, using a new set of STR markers associated to the sexual chromosomes (5 markers in the ECAX and 4 markers in the ECAY), we improved our detection threshold of sex related chromosomal abnormalities. The use of a diagnostic approach combining routine parentage QF-PCR based STR screening tests with classical or molecular cytogenetic analysis could be a interesting procedure that allows early detection of chromosomal abnormalities in horses saving time, efforts and breeders' resources.

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