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Journal of Heredity Advance Access published online on September 13, 2007
Journal of Heredity, doi:10.1093/jhered/esm064
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Published by Oxford University Press 2007.

Genetic Diversity in a Feral Horse Population from Sable Island, Canada

Yves Plante, Jose Luis Vega-Pla, Zoe Lucas, Dave Colling, Brigitte de March, and Fiona Buchanan

From the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canadian Animal Genetic Resource Program, Room 6D62, College of Agriculture and Bioresources, 51 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A8, Canada (Plante); the Laboratorio de Genética Molecular, FESCCR, Apartado Oficial Sucursal 2, Cordoba 14071, Spain (Vega-Pla); the Sable Island Green Horse Society, PO Box 64, Halifax CRO, Halifax, NS B3J 2L4, Canada (Lucas); the Research and Innovation Branch, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Guelph, ON N1G 4Y2, Canada (Colling); 467 Churchill Drive, Winnipeg, MB R3L 1W3, Canada (March); and the Department of Animal and Poultry Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A8, Canada (Buchanan and Plante)

Address correspondence to Y. Plante at the address above, or e-mail: plantey{at}agr.gc.ca.

The present-day Sable Island horse population, inhabiting an island off the eastern coast of Canada, is believed to have originated mainly from horses confiscated from the early French settlers in Nova Scotia in the latter half of the 18th century. In 1960, the Sable Island horses were given legal protected status and no human interference has since been allowed. The objective of this study was to characterize the current genetic diversity in Sable Island horses in comparison to 15 other horse breeds commonly found in Canada and 5 Spanish breeds. A total of 145 alleles from 12 microsatellite loci were detected in 1093 horses and 40 donkeys. The average number of alleles per locus ranged from 4.67 in the Sable Island horse population to 8.25 in Appaloosas, whereas the mean observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.626 in the Sable Island population to 0.787 in Asturcons. Various genetic distance estimates and clustering methods did not permit to support that the Sable Island horses originated from shipwrecked Spanish horses, according to a popular anecdote, but closely resemble light draft and multipurpose breeds commonly found in eastern Canada. Based on the Weitzman approach, the loss of the Sable Island horse population to the overall diversity in Canada is comparable or higher than any other horse breed. The Sable Island horse population has diverged enough from other breeds to deserve special attention by conservation interest groups.

Corresponding Editor: Ernest Bailey

Received April 13, 2007
Accepted June 14, 2007


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