Genetic variability of farmed and free-living populations of red foxes (Vulpes vulpes)

Abstract

This study was designed to determine the degree of genetic distinctiveness between farmed and wild foxes (Vulpes vulpes). Analysis of polymorphism in 16 microsatellite sequences led to the conclusion that red foxes raised on Polish farms and wild foxes living in Poland are two groups of genetically distinct animals. Farmed Polish foxes are genetically more similar to the population of wild animals from North America than they are to the free-living population in Poland, as confirmed by the fact that the farmed animals are descended from animals raised in Canada. The small genetic distance between wild Canadian foxes (indicated as the progenitor of farmed Polish foxes) and farmed Polish foxes possibly suggests that the differences between the farmed and wild Polish populations may result from the fact that Canadian and Polish foxes took separate evolutionary paths.