Genetic Monitoring for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Disease (SCID) Carriers in Arabian Horses of Iran

SCID is a lethal genetic autosomal recessive disorder that has been observed in humans, dogs, mice, and horses. Affected animals are incapable of generating specific antigens for immune responses needed to protect them from infectious diseases. The frequency of affected recessive allele varies in different regions so that the outcome of normal breeding with carriers of recessive alleles is differently distributed. Little information is available for SCID carriers in Iranian horses to prevent carriers breeding. In this study, the occurrence of the SCID alleles was tested in representative samples of Persian Arabian (or Asil) horses. Blood samples were collected from 244 Arabian horses in eight provinces of Iran. The ARMS-PCRs were used for the first time to identify SCID carriers, based on three distinguishing primer pairs. Each sample was used in two separate PCRs with a common forward primer. The two reverse primers differed in their 3 � end: one reverse primer could pick the wild-type allele while the other could pick the mutant allele with a 3� end deletion. An internal control (HMS02 locus) was used in both reactions to verify whether the amplifications worked correctly. The results showed a mutated allele frequency of 0.8% in the Arabian horse population of Iran. This is the first report identifying SCID carriers’ frequency among Arabian horse population in Iran.

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