Italian autochthonous chicken breeds conservation: evaluation of biodiversity in Valdarnese bianca breed (Gallus gallus domesticus)

Three fowl breeds, Valdarnese Bianca, a traditional white feathered breed from Tuscany, Golden Comet a commercial hybrid and Livornese Bianca, a white leghorn type, were genotyped at eight microsatellite loci. A total of 74 alleles were detected with locus ADL181 recorded the lowest (six alleles) and locus ADL136 the highest (15 alleles) allele frequencies respectively. Heterozygosity values ranged from 0.210 (locus ADL210) to 0.742 (locus ADL176). The Wright’s fixation index values were 0.089 (FST), 0.300 (FIS) and 0.363 (FIT). Factorial correspondence analysis and a dendrogram individual tree constructed using individual genetic distances showed genetic differentiation of the three breeds.