Veterinary session

Theories about the origin of the Hungarian Grey cattle breed, a national symbol and a national treasure protected by law have mostly been based on non-scientific research.

Therefore, our study aimed to investigate the mitochondrial non-coding control region (CR) stage, widely used for phylogenetic research, on the most representative sample of the breed available.

The study sample was designed using the electronic pedigree database of the Breeders' Association of the MSZTE, which contains available data on individuals registered after World War II. In the "founder sampling", we first identified the Hortobágy cow families (109) by exploiting the female heritability properties of mitochondrial DNA, and then selected samples from the living herd cow families. The samples were obtained from blood samples sent to the NÉBIH-ÁDI laboratory. The sample thus designed and used for the study was 'fully representative'.

From the 109 mitochondrial CR samples tested, 43 haplotypes (h) were identified. The haplotype diversity (Hd) of the sample was 0.884 and nucleotide diversity (π) was 0.00477. The result of Tajima D test was -2.30622, which was significant (P < 0.01).

Based on the results of the haplotype grouping, all the cow families belong to haplotype group T. The most common haplotype group in Europe, T3, included 96 families, T1 4, T1'2'3' 6, T2 2 and T4 1.

Based on our results, the Hungarian Grey cattle breed can be considered descendants of Taurine cattle only, as it did not contain the ancestral haplogroups R, E, P, and Q, which evolved before haplogroup T.

This result is of great importance for the elucidation of the phylogenetic past of the Podolian cattle, including its phenotypically distinct traditional breeds (Maremman, Hungarian Grey).