Association of caprine lymphocyte antigen-DRB3 gene with gastrointestinal nematode resistance in Sirohi and Barbari breeds of goat

The present study was conducted on Sirohi and Barbari goat breeds to investigate the association of polymorphic variants with gastrointestinal nematode resistance in these goats. A total of 60 animals comprising 30 each of the two breeds selected randomly were included in the study. Genomic DNA isolated from venous blood was amplified for caprine lymphocyte antigen-DRB3 gene with specific primer by standardizing and optimising the PCR protocols. The PCR product of genomic DNA isolated from kids of Sirohi and Barbari breeds of goat on digestion with restriction enzyme Pst1 revealed three genotypes viz., AA, AB and BB with genotypic frequencies of 0.53, 0.37 and 0.10, respectively in Sirohi and 0.73, 0.20 and 0.07 in Barbari breed. The frequencies of A and B alleles were 0.72 and 0.28 in Sirohi and 0.83 and 0.17 in Barbari breed, respectively. Both the breeds were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for these variants and were homogeneous with respect to their distribution. The effects of breed, genotype as well as their interaction were found to be non-signinficant. There were no significant association between genotypes at CLA-DRB3 locus and eggs per gram (EPG) count in both the breeds. It was concluded that this CLA-DRB3 gene locus cannot be used for selection of goats for nematode resistance in the present herd.