Serum Proteins in Equidae: Species, Race and Individual Differences

Abstract

Previous studies of erythrocyte antigens and serum proteins of two Equidae species: horse and donkey, and of their hybrids: mule and hinny showed that

• 1. with respect to blood groups, horse and donkey erythrocytes bear different antigens, all of which can be detected on mule or hinny erythrocytes (Podliachouk 1957 et 1964). Races or breeds of horses can be differentiated by studying frequencies of a given antigen.

• 2. immunochemical comparison of several serum proteins failed to reveal antigenic differences between the two parental species, and all four systems appeared as immunologically identical (Podliachouk 1964).

• 3. comparative examination of serum esterases by starch gel electrophoresis permitted, on the contrary, a clear differentiation between horse and donkey sera; the latter is lacking the faster-migrating esterase (Kaminski 1964). Both hybrids have the same zymogram as the horse, which probably means that the presence of the fast esterase is a dominant character.