Revisiting Genetic Relationships of the Endangered Austrian Turopolje With Balkan and Commercial Pig Breeds Using Genome-Wide SNP Data

Abstract

The endangered Austrian Turopolje (AT) pig population, which originated from six Croatian Turopolje founders imported during the early 1990s, is nowadays preserved through a national conservation project. This study aims to identify genetic relations, genetic distances and migration events between the AT population, four Austrian commercial breeds, and seven local Balkan breeds, as well as their inbreeding levels by using medium‐density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays. The AT population was well separated from the other breeds (multi‐dimensional scaling and Admixture analyses), although displaying a relative genetic proximity to Croatian Turopolje, Hungarian Mangalitsa, and Swallow bellied Mangalitsa. AT did not show any sign of possible gene flow deriving from the other breeds, except for the Banija Spotted (Treemix analysis). The AT genetic variability did not appear negatively influenced by its recent demographic history (inbreeding based on runs of homozygosity, F ROHav = 0.17 ± 0.05). Its inbreeding trend, although increasing, does not appear to be alarming compared to Croatian Turopolje. In conclusion, the results of this study possibly highlight how an efficient management of an originally very narrow genetic stock may have contributed to shape the current genetic make‐up of this recently established population. The observed differentiation between AT and its ancestral counterpart (Croatian Turopolje) may not only reflect the consequence of the initial founder effect but also derive from different management practices over the last three decades. This study represents a first step towards awareness raising about the originality of a local pig population traditionally characterised by the intimate connection with its rural breeding area. Keywords: Austrian Turopolje pig, genetic distances, inbreeding, local breeds, population structure