Parentage verification of Valle del Belice dairy sheep using multiplex microsatellite panel

The aim of this work was to develop and evaluate a PCR based microsatellite markers multiplex system for parentage verification of Sicilian Valle del Belice dairy sheep. A total of 85 samples of blood and hair were collected and genotyped for 24 microsatellite markers in multiplex electrophoresis runs. A total of 269 alleles were detected across the 24 loci investigated. The PIC considering all loci was equal to 0.736, showing that this microsatellite panel was very polymorphic and highly informative. A parentage test was performed on 64 families generated with multiple sires. Results indicated 20.3% and 29.7% misidentification rates for females and males, respectively. In 8 cases, out of 13 maternal exclusions, the real mother was identified among other females within the flock. The observed misidentification rates indicated the necessity of keeping more efficient collection of genealogical records, in order to properly control inbreeding or implement a breeding program. The parentage test presented here could be a helpful tool on verifying or even reconstructing the current pedigree data of Valle del Belice dairy sheep breed.