The genetic diversity of Bangladeshi buffaloes

Abstract

The most buffaloes in Bangladesh are indigenous in origin. There are 5 populations of buffaloes in Bangladesh. Karyotypic experiment indicated that Bangladesh East population had 48 chromosomes while other populations had 50 chromosomes. Blood protein polymorphism study revealed the existence of polymorphism for 7 loci: albumin, transferrin, hemoglobin-α, hemoglobin-β, carbonic anhydrase, alkaline phosphatase and peptidase-B. AlbX, gene for typical swamp buffalo, was detected in populations of BDE and BDS. Another gene of swamp buffalo viz., TfA was found only in the population of BDE. mtDNA study further confirmed the occurrence of haplotypes for swamp buffaloes in BDE. Swamp buffaloes are distributed in the northeastern part of Bangladesh. River buffaloes are distributed other parts of Bangladesh.