Inbreeding and effective population size of the Brazilian Mangalarga Marchador horse breed

Abstract

Data on 286,047 Mangalarga Marchador horses from the studbook of the Associação Brasileira dos Criadores do Cavalo Mangalarga Marchador, born between 1949 and 1999 were used to describe the population genetic structure of the breed. Average inbreeding coefficient was 1.3% for all population and 22.6% of all animals were inbred with average inbreeding coefficient of 5.7%, varying from 0.001 to 46.9%. For the actual population, average inbreeding coefficient was 3.8% for offspring and 7.3% for their parents. Variation between two-year periods was observed for effective population size which was 9, 174, 24 for animals born in the 1998-1999 period. The ratios between effective population size and observed number of animals were mostly less than .50, varying from .39 in 1980-1981 to .79 in 1954-1955.