Genome-wide analysis reveals the ancient and recent admixture history of East African Shorthorn Zebu from Western Kenya

The Kenyan East African zebu cattle are valuable and widely used genetic resources. Previous studies using microsatellite loci revealed the complex history of these populations with the presence of taurine and zebu genetic backgrounds. Here, we estimate at genome-wide level the genetic composition and population structure of the East African Shorthorn Zebu (EASZ) of western Kenya. A total of 548 EASZ from 20 sub-locations were genotyped using the Illumina BovineSNP50 v. 1 beadchip. STRUCTURE analysis reveals admixture with Asian zebu, African and European taurine cattle. The EASZ were separated into three categories: substantial (greater than or equal to12.5%), moderate (1.56%