• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.1366-1368
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• 2004

The Mafriwal dairy cattle was developed to meet the demands of the Malaysian dairy Industry. Although there are reports on its production and reproductive performance, there has been no work on its molecular characterization. This study was conducted to characterize the Mafriwal dairy cattle using microsatellite markers. Fifty two microsatellite loci were analysed for forty Mafriwal dairy cows kept at Institut Haiwan Kluang, Malaysia. The study showed two microsatellite loci to be monomorphic. Allele frequencies for the polymorphic loci ranged from 0.01 to 0.31. Genotype frequencies ranged from 0.03 to 0.33. The mean overall heterozygosity was 0.79. All polymorphic microsatellite loci deviated significantly (p<0.01) from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The Mafriwal dairy cattle showed high genetic variability despite being a nucleus herd and artificial insemination being practiced.