Published: January 31, 2012 1:29 pm ET

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A study published in the open-access journal PLoS ONE Genetics has determined that inbreeding, in regard to the comparison of different equine breeds, is the most dominant within both standardbred and thoroughbred horses.

As explained by an article on horsetalk.co.nz, the report determined via genetic analysis that the two breeds produced the highest inbreeding co-efficients.

According to horsetalk.co.nz, the inbreeding coefficient is a value which represents the percentage of chances for two alleles to be identical by descent.

The study determined that off all horse breeds, thoroughbreds returning the highest rate (0.15), while standardbreds cam second (0.12).

An excerpt from the study states that, "Previous work has demonstrated that approximately 78 per cent of thoroughbred alleles are derived from 30 founders, and that a single founder stallion is responsible for approximately 95 per cent of paternal lineages."

(With files from horsetalk.co.nz)