Copyright © 2006 García, Arruga.
Published by: Portuguese Wildlife Society
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Portugal License

• C. García *
  Laboratorio de Citogenética y Genética Molecular. Facultad de Veterinaria. Miguel Servet , 177. 50013.Zaragoza (SPAIN) Fax: +34 76761662.
• M. Arruga *
  Laboratorio de Citogenética y Genética Molecular. Facultad de Veterinaria. Miguel Servet , 177. 50013.Zaragoza (SPAIN) Fax: +34 76761662.

Abstract

The red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa) is a typical avian species of the Mediterranean area. Crossings of red-legged partridges with other Alectoris partridges have been done in order to increase the productivity of this species when captive bred. Restocking of hunting grounds with such hybrid partridges could damage the genetic heritage of the pure red-legged partridge in the wild. In order to avoid this problem RAPD-PCR has been developed to identify hybrid individuals. This methodology has been used to study wild red-legged partridges as well as partridges from different farms. RAPD analysis results in different patterns for different species. Hybrids can be detected among presumed red-legged partridges if they present a diagnostic band which characterises another species.

Keywords: A. chukar, A. graeca, genomic DNAanalysis.