Association between microsatellite markers and bovine tuberculosis in Chadian Zebu cattle

Abdirahman A. Ali, Peter C. Thomson, Haja N. Kadarmideen

Division of Genetics and Bioinformatics, Department of Veterinary Clinical and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark.
ReproGen—Animal Bioscience Group, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.

DOI: 10.4236/ojas.2013.31004                

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.

Keywords

Bovine Tuberculosis; Breeding Disease-Resistant Cattle; Genetic Markers; Mycobaterium bovis; African Cattle

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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