Veterinary session

The Szekler horse, which is also referred to as the ninth Hungarian horse breed, as the hardy mountain horse of the Carpathians. Many writings speak highly of the breed, which bears ancient traits in both conformation and endurance. Attempts to maintain and consolidate the breed have been made in the past, perhaps the most famous of which was the establishment of the Zsuk stud farm by Tibor Pettkó-Szandtner.

The history of the breed ended with the Second World War, the herd was dispersed, the pedigrees were destroyed and the Székely horse as a breed began to be forgotten.

The most recent reconstruction of the Szekler horse breed started in 2012 under the leadership of Imre Bodó, and by in 2020-21 a mostly phenotypically unified herd was established in Kászon.

The aim of my work is the phylogenetic analysis of the Szekler horse breed reconstruction population based on the mitochondrial CR region. My work is an extension of an English-language article of our Departement, written in 2021 and published in 2023 on a similar topic, with data and samples from 2022 and 2023.

In this study, the mitochondrial DNA of 77 Szekler horses was analysed, resulting in the identification of 77 polymorphic sites, 15 haplotype groups and 53 haplotypes The sample had a haplotype diversity (Hd) of 0.977 and a nucleotide diversity (π) of 0.02105. The haplotype groups are indicated by letters A to R, of which in this case the haplotype groups A (7), B (7), C (1), D (4), E (2), G (4), H (2), I (5), J-K (1), L (9), M (4), N (6), O'P (4), Q (18) and R (1) were the most typical. The haplogroups B, L and especially Q were more abundant in the variety. The new mare lines in 2022-23 were predominantly in the existing haplotype groups and their proportions were not changed. The new haplotype groups C and H occur in 1-1 mare family.

The most common haplotype groups are B for the Middle Eastern, L for the European and Q for the Asian horse genome. All these factors indicate that the Szekler horse is diverse in origin, but the high prevalence of the Q haplotype group suggests an eastern origin.