Genotyping of indigenous cattle for allelic variants in lactoferrin gene

Mastitis is an inflammatory condition of mammary glands affecting the dairy industry and the susceptibility to which varies from animal to animal. Various genetic markers like SNP markers can be established to predict the disease susceptibility. One of the milk protein, lactoferrin being highly polymorphic gene and capable of inhibiting the bacterial growth by chelating the iron could be exploited as potential marker. The bovine lactoferrin gene has two alleles A and B, forming three possible genotypes AA, AB and BB. The incidences of clinical mastitis has been associated with these genotypes among the Bosindicus (Tharparkar) and cross-bred (Bosindicus × Bostaurus) in this present article.