Genetic and phenotypic diversity in Zulu sheep populations: Implications for exploitation and conservation

Zulu sheep are indigenous to KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and provide food security for traditional farmers. Through traditional selection they adapted to the climatic conditions of KwaZulu-Natal. The goal of this study was to use genetic diversity and existing phenotypic data for the breed to argue exploitation opportunities and conservation needs. Three populations (52 Zulu sheep) were included and random amplified polymorphic DNA profiles were used to provide genetic diversity data. A similarity matrix consisting of 2744 RAPD bands (∼46.0% polymorphic) was constructed. Complete linkage analysis indicated lowest genetic similarity (88.96%) within the Makhathini population, greatest (94.83%) in the UNIZULU population and intermediate (91.38%) in the KwaMthethwa population. Similar phenotypic similarity was observed for UNIZULU and Makhathini populations (58.75% and 54.63%, respectively). Complete linkage dendrograms for genetic and linear body measurement data also show that UNIZULU and Makhathini populations are more closely related to each other than to the KwaMthethwa. This study demonstrated usefulness of RAPD profiling for genetic data for Zulu sheep. It also demonstrated that phenotypic and genetic data could be sensibly combined into a single database for this sheep breed. This is important since such information will be critical for decisions regarding Zulu sheep breed exploitation and conservation.