Abstract

This work aimed to know the genetics state of four Sardinian autochthonous animal species: two mammalian species, the mouflon (Ovis gmelini musimon) and the Sardinian hare (Lepus capensis mediterraneus), and two birds, the European shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis desmarestii) and the griffon (Gyps fulvus), in order to supply a method to monitories their welfare and the anthropic impact on these animal colonies and to manage to preserve their genetic diversity. Firstly we manage to construct a simple and atraumatic system to determine the sex in birds that do not show sexual dimorphism, such as griffon and European shag. We used DNA extracted from feather and blood and the polymerase chain reaction to assess a polymorphism of the sexual chromosom located Cromo Helicase DNA Binding 1 (CHDB1) gene. We evidenced a sex specific pattern in both bird species and evidenced a distorted sex ratio in the newborns of european shag populations of the north east of Sardinia. This phenomenon was due to the egg sex managements of European shag females induced by the high death of males during fishing near fishing nets. We used a molecular assessment of microsatellite markers to study population genetics of these species. Our results showed that in all studied species there are troubles due to inbreeding and genetic drift caused by decrease of animal numbers in each population and to the habitat fragmentation due to their interaction with human activities.

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