The MHC homozygous inbred Babraham pig as a resource for veterinary and translational medicine

The Babraham pig is a highly inbred breed first developed in the United Kingdom approximately 50 years ago. Previous reports indicate a very high degree of homozygosity across the genome, including the MHC region, but confirmation of homozygosity at the specific MHC loci was lacking. Using both direct sequencing and PCR-based sequence-specific typing, we confirm that Babraham pigs are essentially homozygous at their MHC loci and formalize their MHC haplotype as Hp-55.6. This enhances the utility of the Babraham pig as a useful biomedical model for studies in which controlling for genetic variation is important.