PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF HEMOGLOBIN POLYMORPHISM AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH SOME MORPHOMETRIC TRAITS AND HEMATOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF SHEEP AND GOATS IN NORTHEASTERN LIBYA.

Local sheep and goats in northeastern Libya were studied for hemoglobin polymorphism. The study was also aimed to unveil a possible relationship that might exist between hemoglobin genotypes, some selected morphometric traits, and hematological parameters. Both phenotypic data and blood samples were collected from a total of 69 adult sheep and 23 adult goats of both sexes. The blood parameters, hemoglobin concentration and packed cell volume values were determined and then the red blood cells were extracted, lysed, and subjected to agarose gel electrophoresis. Two variants of hemoglobin, Hb A and Hb B with a frequency of 0.22, 0.78, and 0.63, 0.37, respectively for pooled sheep and goats populations were observed; indicating the predominance of Hb B in sheep and Hb A in goats. These co-dominant alleles caused the presence of three Hb genotypes AA, BB and AB in both sheep and goats. The largest number of animals of sheep belong to Hb BB (62.32%) and the smallest number to HbAA (5.80%). For goats, the genotype AA had the higher frequency (52.17%) and the type AB was less spread (21.74). The body parameters, body long, shoulder height, chest perimeter, and horn length were not significantly influenced (P>0.05) by Hb variants in populations under the study. Hb genotypes also had no significant (P>0.05) effect on hemoglobin and packed cell volume values.