Development of breed traceability for autochthonous attappady black goats of South India

Attappady Black goats, a meat-type breed raised by the tribal communities of the Attappady hill ranges in Kerala, India, play a pivotal role in the region’s economy, heavily contributing to the livelihoods of its socially disadvantaged population. This study aimed to develop and validate a set of breed-specific genetic markers to enable the precise differentiation of Attappady Black goats from Malabari goats. Breed genetic traceability for Attappady Black goats was developed by adopting deterministic approach using breed specific markers. High throughput genome-wide SNP genotypic data of reference goat population (24 each from Attappady Black and Malabari) obtained by Illumina Goat SNP50 BeadChip genotyping was used to identify candidate breed specific markers. Among the 605 numbers of putative Attappady breed specific markers identified in the reference population, nine putative Attappady breed specific markers were selected and were validated for breed specificity by converting them into polymerase chain reaction -restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) markers and genotyped in large sample goat population of 447 goats (246 Attappady Black and 201 Malabari). On validation, four markers retained their breed specificity with probability of identification (Pi) ranging from 0.24 to 0.66. Panel of four Attappady Black breed specific markers yielded Pi of 0.92 with a probability of misjudgement (Pm) of 0.04. These breed-specific markers hold significant potential for facilitating breed traceability thus ensuring their conservation and enhancing the socioeconomic status of the tribal communities that rely on them. Future research should focus on the broader application of these markers in routine breed authentication and in marketing niche livestock products.