Investigating the Arabian Horse Genome

A study involving Arabian horses from 12 countries has found that some populations maintained more genetic diversity and that the breed did not contribute genetically to the modernday Thoroughbred contrary to popular thought.
An international team of scientists was led by the University of Floridas Samantha Brooks and Doug Antczak and Andy Clark at Cornell University in New York. The group collected and examined DNA samples from 378 Arabian horses from Qatar Iran United Arab Emirates Poland United States Egypt Jordan Kuwait United Kingdom Australia Denmark and Canada. .
Other than the horses location and whether it was used for endurance racing or showing the samples were anonymized for data analysis purposes.
The researchers also incorporated information gained in previous studies which included breeds such as Thoroughbred Persian Arabian Turkmen and Straight Egyptian.
The Arabian horse has a special mystique due to the longrecorded history of the breed Brooks said. Arabian horse breeders in particular know their horses bloodlines many generations back. What we found was that in the area where this breed originates likely the near East region but we dont know exactly theres a healthy level of diversity. This is particularly evident in populations from Bahrain and Syria which suggests these are some pretty old populations.
The Arabian is prized for characteristics such as heat tolerance and endurance as well as its unique appearance with a dishshaped facial profile wideset eyes an arched neck and a high tail carriage. It has been exported from its