Population studies of Czech Sport Pony

Abstract

Population study of Czech Sport Pony breed was carried out based on pedigree information of animals registered in the Studbook. Pedigree records collected from the year 1972 to 2016 comprised information on 12548 animals used in the analyses. The pedigree depth of the analysed individuals was relatively low (3.7 generations). The mean value of inbreeding coefficient was 0.3 % (with maximum value 26 %). The proportion of non-inbreed animals was high (80 %). The average rate of inbreeding in the reference population was lower than 1 %, and the estimates of effective population sizes were relatively high (789). The presented paper is indicating that genetic diversity in the Czech Sport Pony breeds is still relatively high. However the available genetic variability in the Czech Sport Pony breed as an open population with continuous migration and gene flow was lower than was expected. Active management of the future rate of inbreeding is necessary for this breed.

Keywords

• inbreeding
• rate of inbreeding
• effective populations
• open population