Monitoring of possible genetic disorders resulted from persian gulf war on sheep populations in resulted from persian gulf war on FROM PERSIAN sheep populations in khuzestan. PROVINCE

In order to studying of the environmental effects of Persian Gulf war on sheep population in Khuzestan province, the frequencies of five genetic defects were estimated from 250 randomly selected sheep throughout Khuzestan region. Whole blood samples were collected. DNA was extracted, amplified and directly sequenced. Ovine Scrapie is a neurodegenerative disease caused by Polymorphisms of the prion protein gene (Prnp). The amino acid residue alterations at codons 136, 154, and 174 of the prnp gene, in sheep have been found to be associated with susceptibility to Scrapie disease. At codon 136, there was amino acid residues alanin (A) in all samples. The amino acid residue at codon 154 in all samples was arginin (A). At codon 171 there were three different amino acid residues of glutamine (Q), arginine (R), and histidine (H) with frequencies of 68.4, 21.8, and 9.8 percent, respectively. The frequency of the amino acid residues ARQ/ARQ (at codons 136, 154, and 171), which is associated with medium-high susceptibility to Scrapie, was 44.4 percent. The Scrapie-resistant genotype ARR/ARR not found. The highly susceptible genotype (VRQ/VRQ) at these codons not detected from the sampled sheep. Spider lamb syndorm (SLS) caused by a TA transvertion at nucleotide of position 69 of ovine FGFR3 exon 17. The result of this study demonstrated that there was no carrier of SLS in the sample sheep. Cogenital hypotrichosis caused by a GA transition at 823 in exon 3 of the hairless gene. The carrier genotype at this position not detected from the samples. Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL6) caused by a CT transition at codon 184 of NCL6 gene. There was no carrier of NCL6 disease in the sample sheep. The porphyria disease caused by a single point mutation (TC) in ovine UROD gene. In this stady there was no carrier of porphyria disease in the sample sheep. Keywords: Persian Gulf War, Sheep, Khuzestan, Polymorphism, Scrapie, Spider Lamb Syndorm, NCL6, Batten, porphyria